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by Claire Burch (Author)
WHAT REALLY KILLED ROSEBUD? is an exploration into the life and death of Rosebud Abigail Denovo, a nineteen year old People's Park activist who was shot and killed by an Oakland police officer on August 25, 1992. The initials of her pseudonym spelled R.A.D. for radical. WHAT REALLY KILLED ROSEBUD? is also an offshoot of the author's long involvement with documenting the events and life stories of the people who gather in and around People's Park in Berkeley, home of the Free Speech Movement in America. In trying to unravel the mystery of this young woman's death one comes face to face with the big question - what about violence and non-violence? Was this sweet faced kid a new Joan of Arc? What is anarchy anyhow? The book raises more unanswered questions. What about the accounts of Rosebud's last days? The house was empty when she was shot. Did the police have it in for her already? How to remember a slender long haired young martyr and try to understand what sent her into a Berkeley UC chancellor's mansion with a social mission and a machete. Although Rosebud died nearly 20 years ago, the political, sociological and psychological overtones and undertones of her radical life and death resonate with the occupy movements of contemporary America and Europe. ABOUT THE AUTHOR About Claire Burch, Elliott Baker, author of A Fine Madness writes, "I recall 'starvation days' in New York City when Claire and James Baldwin and I struggled with early efforts. I remember Jimmy and I agreeing that of the three of us Claire had the only cliam to genius. I have been aware during the intervening years of her extraordinary work, both in prose and in the visual arts, dealing with the plight of the homeless and dispossessed and unfortunate. She has always had a unique sympathy for them, never allowing this to be side-tracked by the tragedies in her own life. If anything, these have given her deeper insights and understanding which, coupled with her artistic gifts, have led to a body of rare accompishments. Claire Burch's books include Stranger in the Family, Homeless in the Nineties, Goodbye My Coney Island Baby, and Charles Darwin in Cyberspace. Her writing has also appeared in Life (Special Report Cover Story), Saturday Review, McCalls, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, Madamoiselle, and numerous literary quarterlies and anthologies. Paintings have been shown at museums and one man exhibits, receiving excellent reviews from the New York Times, etc. Her films and videos have been shown nationally and internationally.
