Revolutionary Letters

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BBC Radio 4 - Revolutionary Letters

Delve into the worlds of the poet Diane di Prima's Revolutionary Letters.

A practical guide to revolution in the face of social injustice and environmental collapse - delve into the worlds of the American poet Diane di Prima's Revolutionary Letters.

Like a match struck in the darkness, the poet Diane di Prima's Revolutionary Letters offer a practical guide to revolution in the face of social injustice and environmental collapse. 

"In the New York of the 1950s, where I came of age as a poet, one wrote one's dreams, but didn't try to make them happen. To bring about what could be..." 

A prolific writer, scholar and teacher, Diane di Prima's work dances across forms and approaches. Often associated with the writers of the Beat Generation (her good friend Allen Ginsberg called her "a genius" who was "heroic in life and poetics"), she fiercely resisted being labelled as part of the movement unless its definition could be expanded - extending through time to include writers like Baudelaire and other poets who had set up camp to live outside of the dominant culture. By the end of the '60s she had moved to San Francisco, "to take a shot at creating the world as we dreamed it". 

Her Revolutionary Letters were a series of poems designed to hold their own when shouted on marches, at demonstrations or from the steps of City Hall, like a set of incantations for transforming yourself and the world around you.

"The only war that matters is the war against the imagination
all other wars are subsumed in it..." - Rant, Revolutionary Letter no. 75

In this documentary, we hear from the writers Eileen Myles, Chris Kraus and the poet laureate of San Francisco, Tongo Eisen-Martin. Alongside Diane's daughter Dominique DiPrima, her widower Sheppard Powell and her assistant of 17 years, the poet Sara Larsen. Featuring archive from the Gloucester Writers Center and her inaugural address, titled Poetry as Spiritual Practice, from the San Francisco Public Library.

Photo credit: Sheppard Powell

Original music composed by Phil Smith

Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

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