ARTICLE CONTRIBUTED BY OUR FRIEND KEN BORELLI
DIANE DI PRIMA AND THE SAN FRANCISCO RENAISSANCE.
Sadly, I recently read of the passing of Diane Di Prima. She was a Poet Laureate in her adopted city by the bay, San Francisco. She was born in New York City, not in a melting pot, but a bubbling pot in the Italian neighborhoods of old Brooklyn. While coming from a relatively middle class Italian American stock she was influences by her Italian Anarchist grandfather to literally live her life her way. And she did, and quite brilliantly too. A fascinating biography of her life can be found ,written by Sam Whiting, in the SF Chronicle, October 29, 2020,section B2, (Diane di Prima, prolific Beat poet, dead at 86 | Datebook (sfchronicle.com) for those who are curious about her amazing journey.
She was already on her literary career path when she moved to San Francisco, in the 1960's drawn to the exciting artistic vibes of the unique San Francisco Renaissance. She literally became a voice for feminism by just being a major voice in a very male dominated legendary "Beat Movement" centered in the San Francisco of the 1950' and 1960's.
Interesting too, and maybe ironically too, the heart of the Beat Movement was among the Italian neighborhoods of Old North Beach and upper Grant Avenue. Eventually she even bought a home in the very SF Italian neighborhood of the Excelsior District. Not that far from her cultural roots in Brooklyn. Like North Beach, some of these East Coast neighborhoods were bastions of Italian Americana.
Even so, when I was a tyke and visiting family in North Beach, I was warned against visiting the beatnik area of upper Grant, which was only a couple of blocks from the old home, and of course that is where my walks took me. North Beach at the time was also in transition and many of the inhabitants, including my family, wanted to move to the country, Marin, San Mateo and Santa Clara County, so there was that transition going on at the very same time.
Reflecting now on the Beats, I don’t think it was an accident that they became ensconced in our old neighborhoods. It always was a Latin Quarter settlement, full of clubs, bars, excellent restaurants, and social centers. It truly was an exciting urban village within The City. If it was not always welcoming it was very tolerant of the diversity of the time. A live and let live attitude that fostered and nurtured a very creative lifestyle. And that is Italian too.
Italian Americans were also well represented in the multi-cultural Beat movement too. Aside from Diane, the last holdout being Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the owner of the legendary City Light Bookstore. Between City Light and Vesuvio's, a bar, on Columbus Ave, (Dare we use that word!) and across from the Tosca Caffe was a little bootblack stand run by my grandfather Luigi Borrelli.
My ramblings in North Beach took me to Caffe Trieste on Grant Ave. where I first tasted machine espresso, as opposed to the Neapolitan Style. I can still smell the coffee roasting establishments along Green St. Some of the Italian American Beat exiles that found refuge in North Beach included Gregory Corso, Philip Lamantia (related to part of the Lamantia clan of San Jose), Jay De Feo, Robert LaVigne and technically not a beat, Benny Bufano, and of course Enrico Banducci 's and his place on Broadway not too far from the very wild Finocchio's. A little south was the old Barbary Coast, which was the limits of old North Beach and my meanderings. Most of the "beats”, Diane Di Prima included, were beyond the box thinkers, and even today, while we celebrate the Beat movement in the abstract, still keep our distance from their social experiences.
As Italian Americans there is a lot about our history that goes under the radar and Diane Di Prima's passing is a timely reminder of this observation. It is also underscores the need to preserve and document our roots. You are not going to find these tales in any California history book unless we share them. "Omaggio a Diane!"
Ken Borelli