Diane di Prima: A Phone Conference / Poetry Reading & Discussion of Her Life

Credit: Kurt Hemmer, Harper College

It was a cold day in San Francisco when Diane di Prima called in to Kurt Hemmer’s class in Pullman, Washington. Beginning with some readings from Dinners and Nightmares, Diane covers a range of topics, from her experiences living as a poor bohemian artist in New York, to her ideas and process in writing and revising, and the meaning of such lines as “the only war that matters is the war against the imagination.” She also discusses her spiritual and healing work, her children, her time at Millbrook with Timothy Leary, the proper use of psychedelics, and more.