Coca Crystal

Born as Jacqueline Diamond on December 21, 1947, to Jack Diamond, owner of J. Diamond Furs and Rita Dunn, a former fur model.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/nyregion/coca-crystal-avatar-of-counterculture-dies-at-68.html|title=Coca Crystal, Avatar of Counterculture and Provocateur, Dies at 68|last=Grimes|first=William|date=2016-04-02|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-04-19|archive-date=2021-02-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209090657/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/nyregion/coca-crystal-avatar-of-counterculture-dies-at-68.html|url-status=live}} She was born in Manhattan and raised in Mamaroneck.

Starting in 1969, she was a contributor to the East Village Other (EVO) and the name Coca Crystal was created as her pen name.{{Cite web|url=http://evgrieve.com/2016/04/rip-coca-crystal.html|title=RIP Coca Crystal|website=EV Grieve|access-date=2016-04-20|archive-date=2021-02-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209090702/https://evgrieve.com/2016/04/rip-coca-crystal.html|url-status=live}} She would write about politics, women's issues and personal events, many of which earned her the title "slumgoddess".{{Cite web|url=http://eastvillageother.org/recollections/crystal|title=Recollections, Crystal|website=East Village Other|access-date=2016-04-20|archive-date=2021-02-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209090706/http://eastvillageother.org/recollections/crystal|url-status=live}}

In 1975 she adopted her sister's mentally and physically handicapped son, Gustav Che Finkelstein, after her sister was arrested and imprisoned for possession of Hashish in Morocco. Gus received an “executive producer" credit and his babysitter was interviewed on her show. She cared for Gus up until her death.

Her cable-access, weekly variety show television show The Coca Crystal Show: If I Can't Dance, You Can Keep Your Revolution would always start out with lighting a joint, oftentimes she would be pulling the joint from a flower pot and then smoking it. She would talk about protests, anti-nuke activism, local and world news with special segment called Newborn News and invite a wide variety of guests. Some guests on her show included: Philip Glass, Debbie Harry, Abbie Hoffman, Judith Malina, Cesar Chavez, Dana Beal, Tiny Tim, and Tuli Kupferberg of the Fugs. One of her frequent guests, Glenn O'Brien went on to host his own long running public-access television show, TV Party after he appeared on Coca's show.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ok2_CQAAQBAJ|title=Downtown Film and TV Culture: 1975–2001|last=Hawkins|first=Joan|publisher=Intellect Books|year=2015|isbn=978-1783204229}}

In April 1977, a woman claiming to be Crystal called the New York Times to claim the pieing of conservative activist and author Phyllis Schlafly on behalf of the Emma Goldman Brigade. Schlafly was attending a Women's National Republican Club event thrown in her honor at the landmark Waldorf Astoria New York.

In 2013, a play written, via interview with Coca Crystal and titled If I Can't Dance You Can Keep Your Revolution: The Coca Crystal Story was performed by Danielle Quisenberry. The play was shown at Emerging Artists Theatre, TADA! Theater, and part of the East Village Theater Festival at Metropolitan Playhouse in New York City.{{Cite web|url=http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/with-new-play-coca-crystal-gets-an-east-village-other/|title=On Stage, Coca Crystal Gets an East Village Other|last=Maurer|first=Daniel|website=The Local East Village|access-date=2016-04-19|archive-date=2021-02-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209090758/http://localeastvillage.com/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://allevents.in/events/if-i-cant-dance-you-can-keep-your-revolution-the-coca-crystal-story/547074871998808|title=If I Can't Dance You Can Keep Your Revolution: The Coca Crystal Story|website=allevents.in|access-date=2016-04-19|archive-date=2018-05-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180520004243/https://allevents.in/events/if-i-cant-dance-you-can-keep-your-revolution-the-coca-crystal-story/547074871998808|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/338059|title=One Woman Standing|website=Brown Paper Tickets (BPT)|access-date=2016-04-19|archive-date=2021-02-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209090744/https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/338059|url-status=live}}

Crystal died of respiratory failure on March 1, 2016, in Rochelle Park, New Jersey, at age 68. In 2006 she was diagnosed with lung cancer and had struggled with many treatments prior to her passing.

• TV Party
• The Poetry Project's Public Access Poetry
• Potato Wolf TV by Collaborative Projects (COLAB)
• Jamie Davidovich's The Live! Show (1979–1984)

{{reflist|30em}}

• [http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/mss_468/ Coca Crystal Video Recordings and Papers], Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University Special Collections
• [https://www.youtube.com/user/Cocacrystal82/discussion Coca Crystal's Youtube videos]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zapttwBQmZQ Promo for The Coca Crystal Show: If I Can’t Dance, You Can Keep Your Revolution] (1994)
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QcdDVMqY0I The final video: Coca Crystal Show] (June 16, 1995)

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{{Anarchism}}

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Category:1947 births

Category:2016 deaths

Category:Hippies

Category:Actresses from Manhattan

Category:People from Mamaroneck, New York

Category:American television actresses

Category:Journalists from New York City

Category:Yippies

Category:American anarchists

Category:Underground culture