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November 8, 2020 8:01 AM Subscribe
Poet, one of the few surviving members of the Beat generation, feminist, activist, Diane di Prima died this week.
Revolutionary Letters #48, #9-11, #4, Influence (Wooing)
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posted by Rube R. Nekker at 9:51 AM on November 8, 2020
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 9:51 AM on November 8, 2020
I was just thinking about her the other day after telling some friends about her work.
I first learned of her on a remarkable evening in September 1987. I was a senior in high school in Overland Park, KS, with a burgeoning interest in the world of the 1960s and the New York avant-garde art scene I was learning about through Laurie Anderson's work, and copies of Interview magazine. I saw an article in the Sunday paper about a week long series of events in nearby Lawrence, KS (home of K.U.) that was reuniting a host of figures from the Beat Generation, culminating in a massive evening reading the next Saturday. So I went - I think I got a friend who was already at KU to go buy us tickets. The only names on the bill I knew much of at the time were William S. Burroughs and Timothy Leary. But also performing that night were Anne Waldman, John Giorno, Jim Carroll ("The Basketball Diaries"), Andrei Codrescu, and Allen Ginsberg. (Yes - my first ever encounter with Allen Ginsberg was hearing the man himself, his pudgy self seated in a chair in a white shirt and silver lamé tie, reading "Howl.")
But the person I came away from the night most impressed by and interested in was Diane di Prima. In particular the "Revolutionary Letters" she read from. (I don't remember exactly which ones other than #49, "free all political prisoners.") I was able to get a copy of the book a few weeks later on a return visit to KU (still have that copy). It changed forever my understanding of the work of the 1960s revolutionaries...the degree to which they really thought the REVOLUTION was happening NOW. Reading those poems puts you more inside the mind of the true 60s activists than anything else I've ever seen or read.
But the piece of hers I think I turn to most often since then is Rant from 1985:
posted by dnash at 10:29 AM on November 8, 2020 [8 favorites]
I first learned of her on a remarkable evening in September 1987. I was a senior in high school in Overland Park, KS, with a burgeoning interest in the world of the 1960s and the New York avant-garde art scene I was learning about through Laurie Anderson's work, and copies of Interview magazine. I saw an article in the Sunday paper about a week long series of events in nearby Lawrence, KS (home of K.U.) that was reuniting a host of figures from the Beat Generation, culminating in a massive evening reading the next Saturday. So I went - I think I got a friend who was already at KU to go buy us tickets. The only names on the bill I knew much of at the time were William S. Burroughs and Timothy Leary. But also performing that night were Anne Waldman, John Giorno, Jim Carroll ("The Basketball Diaries"), Andrei Codrescu, and Allen Ginsberg. (Yes - my first ever encounter with Allen Ginsberg was hearing the man himself, his pudgy self seated in a chair in a white shirt and silver lamé tie, reading "Howl.")
But the person I came away from the night most impressed by and interested in was Diane di Prima. In particular the "Revolutionary Letters" she read from. (I don't remember exactly which ones other than #49, "free all political prisoners.") I was able to get a copy of the book a few weeks later on a return visit to KU (still have that copy). It changed forever my understanding of the work of the 1960s revolutionaries...the degree to which they really thought the REVOLUTION was happening NOW. Reading those poems puts you more inside the mind of the true 60s activists than anything else I've ever seen or read.
But the piece of hers I think I turn to most often since then is Rant from 1985:
THE ONLY WAR THAT MATTERS IS THE WAR AGAINST.
THE IMAGINATION
ALL OTHER WARS ARE SUBSUMED IN IT
There is no way out of a spiritual battle
There is no way you can avoid taking sides
There is no way you can not have a poetics
no matter what you do: plumber, baker, teacher
you do it in the consciousness of making
or not making yr world
posted by dnash at 10:29 AM on November 8, 2020 [8 favorites]
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posted by Lawn Beaver at 10:47 AM on November 8, 2020
posted by Lawn Beaver at 10:47 AM on November 8, 2020
Thank you for this. I often think about the women in the Beats, a hypermasculine set of folks, for the most part. Between her and Anne Waldman, they managed to do some amazing work with a fraction of the recognition. I wish I could remember what poem it was by di Prima that really got me going, decades probably ago when I spent more time in San Francisco. I know she and my uncle were contemporaries in early SF, I should go write him a condolence note.
posted by jessamyn at 2:52 PM on November 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by jessamyn at 2:52 PM on November 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
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posted by Bob Regular at 8:40 AM on November 9, 2020
posted by Bob Regular at 8:40 AM on November 9, 2020
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posted by wicked_sassy at 10:17 AM on November 9, 2020
posted by wicked_sassy at 10:17 AM on November 9, 2020
Somehow I missed out on Diane di Prima in my poetry education-- thank you for posting about her.
posted by tuesdayschild at 12:00 PM on November 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by tuesdayschild at 12:00 PM on November 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Thank you for this. I often think about the women in the Beats, a hypermasculine set of folks, for the most part. Between her and Anne Waldman, they managed to do some amazing work with a fraction of the recognition.
Want to put in a good word for the life work of Joanne Kyger, Hettie Jones and Joyce Johnson.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:44 PM on November 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Want to put in a good word for the life work of Joanne Kyger, Hettie Jones and Joyce Johnson.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:44 PM on November 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
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posted by fairlynearlyready at 11:50 PM on November 9, 2020
posted by fairlynearlyready at 11:50 PM on November 9, 2020
my dad gave me MEMOIRS OF A BEATNIK when i was 22/23.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 10:20 AM on November 10, 2020
posted by misanthropicsarah at 10:20 AM on November 10, 2020
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