Life
Change was born as Kathleen Chang in Ohio in 1950. Her father, Sheldon Chang, was an engineer and a professor at the State University at Stony Brook, Long Island, New York. Her mother Gertrude was a writer. She had one brother. Her parents divorced while she was a teenager. Her mother committed suicide when Kathy was 14 years old.
Change graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in New York City and briefly attended Mills College and the Bronx campus of New York University. Upon her marriage, she moved to California.
In 1976, she published a 24-page children's book, The Iron Moonhunter. The book, which she wrote and illustrated, is about the life of Chinese workers on the Central Pacific railroad in the 19th century.
In 1981, Change moved to Philadelphia. Around this time, her life was increasingly defined by her political activism and her struggles with what many considered to be mental illness. The New York Times noted that she had seen psychiatrists for off and on for her adult life, although friends were unaware if a specific illness had been diagnosed. For living arrangements, she renovated and squatted in an abandoned Philadelphia building with others.
In the later years of her life, she added an "e" to her last name, and legally changed her name to Kathy Change.
Read more about this topic: Kathy Change
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