Coca Crystal

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.

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.

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

Starting in 1969, she was a contributor to the East Village Other (EVO) and the name Coca Crystal was created as her pen name. She would write about politics, women's issues and personal events, many of which earned her the title "slumgoddess".

Coca Crystal (December 21, 1947 – March 1, 2016) was an American television personality, anarchist and political activist, connected with 1960s counterculture. She was best known for her weekly cable-access variety show The Coca Crystal Show: If I Can't Dance, You Can Keep Your Revolution, which ran from 1977 to 1995.

Born as Jacqueline Diamond on December 21, 1947, to Jack Diamond, owner of J. Diamond Furs and Rita Dunn, a former fur model. She was born in Manhattan and raised in Mamaroneck.