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PAGE 8 THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2014
THE DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN
Change’s admirers view her brand of activism as authentic CHANGE from page 1 ever go away. KathyChange.org, a website featurShortly thereafter, Kathy found her ing some of her writings. mother dead when she tried to wake “I do see her in the tradition of her up the morning after they had a martyrdom,” said Adam Corsonfight. Only a well of tears in the hollow Finnerty, the director of development by the bridge of her mother’s nose reat Van Pelt Library at the time of mained to show Kathy that Gertrude Change’s death. “Like Norman Morhad been hurting as badly as she rison, like Medgar Evers, like Viola had. Her mother’s death was ruled a Liuzzo, like Jesus.” suicide by overdose of barbiturates. “What she was saying in her maKathy felt responsible for the rest of nia or in her kookiness or in her her life, and Gerwritings, all of what trude had sucshe was saying kind ceeded where of came true,” Kim her daughter had said. “Talking about “flubbed.” the economy, the cor“ She d id it ruption of capitalism, She was saying it s u c c e s s f u l l y, all these things, it just so I t houg ht , seems they really was not really a true ‘Boy, she really have come to affect democracy that showed me up,” the state of the world we have, that each Ch a nge s a id . today.” “ But I d id n’t A t t he r o ot o f election is between have to answer Change’s cause was the lesser of two evils. to anybody after t he T r a n s f o r m a I think Kathy Change that.” tion Party, an afThe next few filiation she created was relevant to the yea rs were a advocating a comAmerican dream. whirlwind. Kathy munity-based direct — Ludmila Zamah, f lunked out of democracy and a Penn graduate, former Mills College in cooperative barter member of Friends of Oakland, Calif., economy. The dollar Kathy Change the only school was dying, Change t h at h a d a c insisted to anyone cepted her, after who’d listen, and the five months. For economic status quo another six months, she lived with in America was about to follow. her grandparents and went back to “She was pointing out ills in our school at NYU thanks to connections society before her time like the ecothrough her parents. Later, she met nomic collapse in 2008,” Zamah said. Frank Chin in Chinatown. “She was predicting something like Considered one of the pioneers that was going to happen.” of Asian-American theater, Chin Most people aware of Change’s founded the Asian American Thepolitical message also knew that ater Workshop in 1973. Kathy was it anticipated Occupy Wall Street attracted to what she perceived to be perfectly. Chin’s radicalism, and the two struck “You could almost look at it as like up a relationship. a precursor to that,” Duerr said. “But “Eventually I said, ‘Why don’t you I bet if you asked a lot of people who marry me?’ Change remembered. were involved in that who she was, a “He said, ‘Hmmm ... all right.’” lot of them wouldn’t have a clue about And so in 1971, he did, taking her. I feel like Kathy was kind of into Change back to San Francisco with that thing like, ‘We’ll just go into the him. Change participated in the banks, we’ll just be like partying.’ Asian American Theater Workshop It seemed like a cool way to resolve during their marriage, and in 1976 that stuff.” she published “The Iron MoonhuntPlenty of left-leaning Americans er,” a children’s book. would think a lot of Change’s political That same year, though, her marideas were cool. She left the Philariage ended and Kathy sank into delphia branch of the Green Party in despair again. The failure of her mar1989 after it refused to include legalriage resulted in another suicide atization of marijuana in its platform, tempt, this time with pills and a fifth even though nearly all of its members of Canadian whiskey. privately favored legalization. She criticized U.S. antiprotectionist free trade policies enabling job outsourcing. She denounced President Bill The College Green Clinton for enforcing unreasonable dancer No Fly Zones in Iraq and warned that a United States-instigated war with y the fall of 1978, Kathleen Iraq was imminent. Chang needed change so Desperate or not, Change’s enmuch she became it. She gagement with the issues was constarted going by Kathy Change to crete. After all, if you knew there was reflect her newfound belief that she a peace activist who foresaw the 2003 was going to change the world. After U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, predicted stays in New York and Berkeley, variations of the economic collapse Change moved to Philadelphia in of 2008, refused to back down from 1981. advocating marijuana legalization “The late ’80s and early ’90s in and touted environmentalism, you West Philly, outside the jeweled wouldn’t call her crazy. strongbox of Penn, was full of folks What is crazy is how quickly the like Kathy,” said Joseph Shahadi, memory of a woman burning herChange’s former neighbor who went self to death in the middle of an Ivy on to earn a Ph.D. in performance League campus has faded. studies at NYU in 2011 and write The Transformation Party that the essay “Burn: The Radical DisChange desperately tried to publicize appearance of Kathy Change” for no longer exists. Precious few curThe Drama Review the same year. rent Penn students and faculty know “Artists and activists lived in the who she was. She self-immolated dilapidated old Victorians and warewith one final hope of inspiring rehouse squats. We went to hardcore form, but the site of her fiery exit imshows, shopped at the co-op, ate mediately reverted back to a sphere cheap Ethiopian food and went to of leisure. For one day, the ultimate the same half-dozen bars.” sacrifice for a new democracy. For Sure, Change never fit in at Penn. the next 18 years, frisbee for fun. But to a great extent, that was the Nevertheless, Change’s admirers point. If you want to crash the Ivory have continued to keep her memory Tower, it helps to have a little bit of alive through many different forms color. of art and media, revealing how preThe first time Zamah saw her, carious her legacy is — and how vital. Change was dancing dressed com‘It was so wretched’ pletely in black, with a pointed cone Kathy Change was born Kathabove her head to signify that she leen Chang in Springfield, Ohio, in was a missile protesting nuclear 1950. Her family moved to the Bronx proliferation. Sometimes she’d carwhen she was 2. She grew up feelry a dollar sign around to warn of ing “stared at, giggled at” for being imminent financial crisis. Often, Chinese. Her father, Sheldon Chang, she’d don large bird wings and a was an engineer who also served as mask along with spangled panties a professor at the State University of and high heels. On other days, she’d New York at Stony Brook before retirdress up in a costume that she siming in 1980. Her mother, Gertrude, ply called “Satan’s dick.” was a writer. And yet, in the long run, she was “I grew up a really lonely girl,” easily ignored. Change said on the WQHS Penn “I’m not aware of her actively student radio show “PennTalk” in trying to have a conversation with November 1995. people,” said Brendan McGeever, Kathy’s parents divorced when a WQHS Penn student radio DJ she was in her early teens. Gertrude who interviewed Change on his and her precocious daughter fought every night. “PennTalk” show in November 1995. “It was so wretched, so I thought, “That was just not her. It’s unlikely ‘Well, I’m just going to go kill myself,’” that there were very many students Change said. besides myself that actually talked But as she remembered nearly to her because she wouldn’t open three decades later, she “flubbed it,” up that way.” only slicing out the tendons in her McGeever interrupted one of her wrists instead. Neither her scars nor dances on College Green to invite her reputation for hysterics would her on his show.
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“One thing that I was cerThe crazy and the tainly surprised universal: A legacy by was how norcontinues mal she was to talk to,” McGeevn a cloudy evening earlier er said. this month, College Green McGeever is teeming with perforposted flyers all mance art on display for Quakers around campus old and new. It’s Quaker Days, a advertising the time for newly admitted students to upcom i ng ap experience Penn, many for the first pearance of “the time. What the oversized Penn comCollege Green DP File Photo munity sees on College Green today dancer” and feaKathy Change, a campus fixture, was taken to the Hospital of the are about two dozen blue, yellow and turing her headred cards made out of construction shot. It didn’t University of Pennsylvania after lighting herself on fire on Oct. 22, 1996. paper tied to a small, thin tree in help. front of the peace sign. They were No one called respected that act profoundly. I felt hung there by a theater arts class in. Since “PennTalk” was in an unI understood it deeply. But it didn’t on a mission to make performance popular 10 a.m. Tuesday slot and end the war.” art public at Penn for a course projthe only way students could listen ect. The class gathered around the in was through on-campus cable tree, holding each other’s hands and television sets, it didn’t attract many smiling in unison. listeners. Spreading Change Now, though, the sun is setting Fortunately, McGeever recorded Hippie-like” is how Zamah and College Green is empty. All his shows because he was sure no describes the older crowds at that remains are the cards bobbing one would hear them otherwise. the Friends of Kathy Change in the wind. Each card has a word He held onto the recording of his meetings she attended at the written on it in marker. A yellow episode with Change and gave it to group’s weekly meetings at 38th card featuring the word “crazy” Kim, the performance artist, after Street and Lancaster Avenue. Zasways on its string next to another she reached out to him for her themah was the only student who atyellow card with the word “univerater work on Change. tended the meetings. Eventually, sal.” Just a few feet from where she “If anybody is at all interested having to walk nine blocks there killed herself, what very well might in talking to me, I would welcome and back, just beyond the edge of be Change’s legacy is on display — it,” Change said on “PennTalk.” “I where Penn Transit’s vans would the universal at odds with the crazy, would love to meet people. I love for go, took its toll. So did the group’s a thoughtful piece of performance people to talk to me. Anybody!” lack of direction. art fighting to be seen. Its words “I just remember feeling like it are there for a new class of Penn wasn’t terribly organized,” Zamah students to see, but no one’s looking. The fire that Penn said. “So I just stopped going.” So is this Kathy Change’s legacy? forgot Like Zamah, Justin Duerr reA few spreading the message and mains attracted to the power of nobody else looking? t some point in the last year Change’s message. “I personally don’t think she was of her life, Change decided Duerr obtained a video copy of successful in what she wanted to do to go out with a smolder. Change’s 1991 play “The Transforas an artist — that’s what drove the Philadelphia police inspectors mation” and uploaded it to YouTube whole thing,” said Jonny Meister, in full in February 2012. Now, almost would later deduce that she had who interviewed Change and seva quarter-century later, Soomi Kim been experimenting with different eral other activists participating in is looking to do a Kathy Change accelerants on various cuts of meat, a nude protest at Penn on his WXPN performance of her own. eventually deciding on gasoline bemorning radio show. “I’m sure there Kim first heard of Change in 2011. cause alcohol did not burn hot or were people that remember her suiquickly enough. Having performed dance theater cide. But if you didn’t know her, it’s The morning of her death, she pieces on female martyr figures just one more awful tragedy.” delivered packets of her writings, inbefore, she started researching Three Penn students have comcluding a seven-page letter explainChange and, as a fellow Asianmitted suicide this academic year ing why she was choosing to end her American performance artist, inalone. Penn continues to be an ultralife, to The Daily Pennsylvanian and stantly felt a connection. competitive, pre-professional instiWXPN, along with six Penn stu“The thing that is really personal tution, not at all the countercultural dents and two local residents with for me and about Kathy is that she hotbed for social revolutionaries whom she had previously discussed lost her mother at a very tender that Change reveled in at Mills and her beliefs. age through suicide. She was abanNYU, however briefly. Penn may “There was certainly no wake-up doned and left alone. That’s like the have hardened Kathy Change, but call or anything like that,” McGeevbiggest ‘fuck you’ in life to have your Kathy Change didn’t soften Penn. er said about the campus’s reaction parent do that,” Kim said. “To me, Beyond Penn, Duerr estimates to her suicide. that’s the biggest source of pain. that just five people still actively A week after her death, approxiWhen I was 12, I lost my mother — share Change’s writings and other mately 70 people attended a meshe died in a car accident. So I think materials. morial held at Bodek Lounge in there’s a larger connection for me in “It would be a shame if her story Houston Hall. The service was orgaterms of exploring what happens to went away,” McGeever said. nized by the Office of the Chaplain in the human spirit.” Once she transformed herself cooperation with Change’s friends. Kim’s development of “Chang(e)” from Kathleen Chang to Kathy But most of the audience conwas set up to be a three-year proChange, her life was nonstop persisted of Change’s friends, with only cess and will premiere as a fullformance. Her body and mind were a few students attending. length production at HERE Arts constantly on display to challenge Nevertheless, Zamah remained Center in SoHo in the fall of 2015. the status quo. But it’s telling that interested in what Change had to One of what resonated most say, enough to join Friends of Kathy Kim’s first with Zamah, McGeevChange during the spring semester steps toward er, Kim and Duerr, of her freshman year. putting on a even more than the “Although self-immolation is kind show was content of Change’s of a shocking form of protest, I didn’t reaching out ideas, was the convicreally understand it,” Zamah said. to McGeevtion behind them. Her life I don’t think “But to me, anyone who is so paser, who she “You can argue the immediately had sionate about their causes to pronoticed had success or failure of the impact that she test them in that way, I just kind of been quoted what she was trying to wanted to understand it more.” in a Daily do, but you can’t argue wanted, but there’s Corson-Finnerty, the former Van Pennsylvathe dedication behind something still there Pelt director of development, undernian stor y it,” Duerr said. “And I to be admired in stood perfectly. In 1964, a 20-yearon Change a think the success part old Corson-Finnerty saw the 1955 month after of it comes from the what she was trying documentary film “Night and Fog,” her death. dedication.” to say and do. which highlights torture, scientific McGeever “Her life I don’t think “experiments,” prostitution and gave K im immediately had the — Soomi Kim, executions throughout two Nazi the recordimpact that she wantPerforming artist, workconcentration camps. ing from ed,” Kim said. “But ing on a theater work “My reaction was not, ‘Those Cha nge’s there’s something still about Change Germans were evil, and we were “PennTalk” there to be admired in justified in killing them,’’’ Corsonepisode and what she was trying to Finnerty said. “My reaction was, even played say and do.” ‘We did that — we humans — and himself Her cause may have this is absolutely horrible.’” interviewing Change (portrayed died with her, but the indelible imThen, as an undergraduate at by Kim) in four early showings of age of Change creatively demanding Penn, Corson-Finnerty learned “Chang(e)” in January and Februtransformation remains. about the history behind the United ary 2013. Change’s legacy remains preStates’ treatment of Native Ameri“I just want people to know who carious because it hinges on her few cans, lynching and slavery. she was and that her life had meanmost dedicated admirers continu“And I watched the war in Vieting,” Kim said. ing to share and discuss her works. nam turn into an act of evil by my But “Chang(e)” wouldn’t have But although it takes two to pass people — my tribe — my elected been possible without a community something on, it only takes one to government,” Corson-Finnerty said. of friends and fans of Change bestart the process, whether it be Du“And my protests and those of other yond McGeever who hooked her up err’s “Iron Moonhunter” scans or students seemed futile against the with archival materials and people McGeever’s “PennTalk” recording. juggernaut.” close to Change. Duerr’s friend Eric Apathy kills legacy, and fortunately But what could a Penn student Chocolates lived with Change at the for Change’s legacy and those who possibly do to gain attention for his Killtime — a communal warehouse choose to hold a stake in it, apathy is marginalized beliefs? of West Philadelphia artists at 3854 what she spent her entire life fight“I started thinking about throwing against. Lancaster Ave. — and distributed ing myself in front of a munitions “I would say above all she was some of Change’s writings and matrain,” Corson-Finnerty said. very critical of apathy, playing along terials to him. Duerr also obtained Then on Nov. 2, 1965, Norman with business as usual,” Zamah a copy of “The Iron Moonhunter” Morrison, a Quaker pacifist, burned said. “That’s what she was trying from San Francisco via interlibrary himself to death at the Pentagon, to draw attention to.” loan, scanning the pages for Kim. at a spot estimated to be 40 to 100 “She wasn’t just addressing “I was glad I was able to act as feet from the window of Secretary Americans, or rich countries, or the like a catalyst for that,” Duerr said. of Defense Robert S. McNamara. West,” Corson-Finnerty said. “She “I’m just trying to get information “He did what I had been thinking was addressing the human condiout there.” about,” Corson-Finnerty said. “I tion, at all times and everywhere.”
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