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Diane di Prima, Feminist Utopian Beat Poet and San Francisco Poet Laureate, Dies at 86

HeadlineOct 27, 2020

Feminist utopian poet Diane di Prima died Sunday at the age of 86. Born and raised in New York City, Di Prima became a rare, prominent female voice in the Beatnik community in the 1950s, alongside counterparts like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. She moved to the Bay Area in the 1960s where she eventually became San Francisco poet laureate. Di Prima is known for her insurrectionary “Revolutionary Letters” series, which she started in 1968 and continued writing through 2017. In one of her letters, she concluded, “remember you can have what you ask for, ask for everything.” Diane di Prima is survived by her husband and five children.

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