Who is Diane Di Prima?

Diane Di Prima was a beat-era poet and artist born on August 6th, 1934. She went to Hunter College High School with Audre Lorde, and the two became part of a friend group called "the Branded", who would hold seances for dead poets while they were skipping class. She then dropped out of Swathmore College to pursue poetry.
Her first book of poetry, "This Kind of Bird Flies Backwards", was published in 1958. She worked on projects like The Floating Bear, The New York Poets Theatre, and Poets Press. In 1961 she was arrested for her "obscene" poetry. She moved to California and studied many different religions, including buddhism and gnosticism. She published "Loba" in 1978. From 1986-1987 she taught in the Masters in Poetics program at the New College of California. She also taught Western Spiritual Traditions at the San Francisco Art Insitute.
She was born into activism, as her grandfather was an active anarchist. She also found many friends with radical beliefs at high school, her short time at college, and in the beat poetry scene later on.
She passed away October 25th, 2020, at 86 years old.