RECOLLECTIONS OF MY LIFE AS A WOMAN (The New York Years)
a memoir by Diane di Prima Putnam Viking 2001 $29.95 hardback a review by Ronnie Burk
San Francisco
May 7 2001 Poetry lovers will find a lot to enjoy in this frank and artfully written memoir. A virtual who's who of the downtown New York art scene of the late fifties and early sixties is featured in Diane di Prima's splendid Recollections Of My Life As A Woman. Such luminaries as Frank O'Hara, Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Jim Dine, James Waring, Cecil Taylor, John Wieners, Audre Lourde, Philip Whalen, Yoko Ono, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jack Smith, Larry Rivers, Red Grooms. Helen Adam, Robert Duncan, Charles Olson, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and many others all come and go as di Prima tells the story of her emergence as a poet during one of the most creative periods in New York City's history. Di Prima's comments on the creative process while telling the story about The Poet's Theatre's production of Michael McClure's The Blossom with set designs by assemblage artist George Herms becomes a fascinating exposition on the subject of art as magic. This production included the airing of Antonin Artaud's To Have Done With The Judgment of God over the night sky above Bleeker Street. Grounded in the basic hard work of theatrical production di Prima relays the chaos and madness and transforming power that occurs when art enters the realm of the divine. This is art as magick she tells us not art as entertainment and it is this magickal path she has chosen in order to make her way in life. | |
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