Ben Marcus Rules

Around Christmas time you said you flew all the way to Belgium to do a presentation/class about Audrey Hepburn - who was born in Brussells in 1929. You did the presentation from her house, correct?

I’m always flying somewhere. I teach online but from the woman’s home. I stayed in Bruges where she lived while she filmed the nun's story, my favorite Audrey film. 

That would be The Nun’s Story (1959)

Audrey as a rebel nun! I mean come on! A woman trying to be good - fighting her warrior spirit but in the end it wins out. Delicious. Some of us are on unstoppable trains. And women that get it - get it. And it seems we all have the story of hiding our spirit. Jedis posing as housewives. I know this well. 

But we are always exposed! The universe rips off our masks. Our roots break the pot. One way or another the ancient fire always wins out. 

That’s fairly poetic right there.

It’s why I made Poems and Power. When I woke I was in Missouri, a doctor’s wife.  Three kids.  

That sounds respectable. 
I almost jumped off a balcony in Vegas where my husband had a medical conference. 

I went to high school with a dentist who jumped out of the 17th floor of a hotel at Disneyland in 2008.
I decided instead to write a poem every day. I did. And it saved my life. I made Poems and Power. And now there are thousands of women all over the world writing poems every day and not jumping.

The more we know about brave wild women that came before us the more we remember ourselves. 

In 50 words or less what did you have to say about Audrey Hepburn?  
The thing about Audrey is she is big love. She was a child of war. Her movies are a protest. Audrey carried notes from the underground in her shoes at 10 years old! Almost starved to death! Danced to raise money for the resistance! 

Seems to me that Hepburn's appeal was similar to Taylor Swift - a bright, pretty, sexy but wholesome woman who was out to have a good time and not hurt anyone.
I should refuse to answer this question. So clearly written by a man. 

Sorry. But I’m a dude. He/him, etc.
Audrey and Taylor are legendary women.  They have chosen their unstoppable train. They have lived brave, brilliant, genius masterful lives and burnt entire paradigms to ash. 

Taylor single-handedly has boosted the US economy and Audrey is the reason we have a United Nations - look it up! 

So I was kinda right about the Swift/Hepburn deal, wasn’t I? Throw me a bone. Cut me some slack. 
Listen to Audrey’s interviews! Taylor’s lyrics! These are women who aren’t afraid of the truth or of hurting who hurt them. Not to mention what both of these women are doing globally for children is astronomical. 

I have twin daughters in love with Taylor watching her fight to own her own music rights and win and re-record all her albums and go on to create the highest-grossing world tour of all time, single handedly bolstering our economy.  
Audrey raised more money for humanitarian crises and children than anyone before her. She is responsible for saving hundreds of thousands of lives - not to mention the way Audrey’s movies destroyed patriarchal views of women. 

But yes let’s talk about how wholesome and sexy they are.

Well to paraphrase Gordon Gekko: “Wholesome, for lack of a better word, is good. Wholesome works.” We live in an increasingly vulgar world. I created a meme that I think explains some of Taylor Swift’s appeal.

Good God. Next question. 

You sound like someone else I know.

Burn that question. Burn the part of you that asked it.  

Naw it set you up for an impassioned answer. It was a tactic. I may act dumb but it’s just a disguise. Let’s see if I can step on another landmine: Recently you went to Palm Springs to do a presentation about Marilyn Monroe = from the house she owned there. The movie Blonde with Ana de Armas painted Marilyn as a dark figure, but she wasn't entirely dark.

Dark? Nah. What’s dark is how men have killed women for thousands of years. But being the most radiant woman of your time and refusing to dim. That’s not dark. That’s the stuff of greatness.  

Marilyn was killed because she was powerful. She was about to hold a press conference and tell the world the truth. She was a threat on every level to powerful men. She was in touch with her sexuality. She refused to be used and abused and dared to shine and they killed her. Marilyn was not dark. She was BIG. ALIVE. MAGNIFICENT. The men that killed her are dark.

Norma Jean/Marilyn used to tandem surf Malibu and was a Malibu beach girl before she became the world’s biggest movie star.

I met you at the coffee shop when I was teaching her. You had that black and white photo of her standing right where I live. I bet Marilyn orchestrated that meeting! Thank you for introducing me to Marilyn the surfer! Of course she loved the ‘Bu. Magic recognizes magic. 

So Bruges for Hepburn, Palms Springs for Monroe. Where else have you traveled to lecture on notable women?
Frida Kahlo = Casa Azul Coyoacan. Alexandria, Egypt for Cleopatra. Learned to SCUBA to check out her palace.

No kidding? How was that?
Actually there was nothing there. It had all been completely pirated. I started asking questions and was brought into the basement of the library of Alexandria. It’s all there. Magnificent. I cried. What I’ve found is all you have to do is ask questions. Rilke says live the question.

Yep, ask the right questions to the right people and you will get answers.
Mary Magdalene’s cave in the south of France. 

Pardon my ignorance but Mary Magdalene was a living person with an actual marked grave? Enlighten me, please. I’m just a dumb surfer.
???????? 

I also taught Medusa.  Marked graves are for the worms. I plan on being sent out on a pyre shot by flaming arrows. 

Ha! When my friend Brock Little died - he was a talented big wave surfer and stuntman - I proposed doing that same thing at Waimea Bay. A Viking funeral - arrows fired at a boat with his body on a pyre. Go out big!
Marie Antoinette from the Palace of Versailles. Jeanne D’Arc from Rouen, her execution site. Mary Queen of Scots from an 11th century castle in Scotland. Anne Frank from her hiding place in Amsterdam. Joni at the Chelsea hotel. 

Joni Mitchell had a house here in Malibu, on Malibu Road. I did a story on it. She name-checks Malibu in one of her songs: “Breaking like the waves in Malibu.” Joni rules.

Joni is the poet of poets. Stevie Nicks. Cher. Dolly. Madonna. Dr. Maya Angelou. Anne Sexton. Virginia Wolfe (Rome). Anais Nin in Paris. Sappho from her home in Greece. Medusa from Serifos her snake island. So many more.

Round round get around, you get around. What exactly is offered in these presentations? 
My absolute unhinged performance for two hours. No one is bored. I’m being wildly myself and that somehow gives permission slips. They write. They remember. 

What would you call his form of communication? 
Fun as hell.

If I go to your eponymous website chelsiediane.com you see a smiley woman and these words: Come study the greatest women of all time and write poetry with women all over the world!

And on your Instagram there is a lot of poetry. @poemsandpeonies
I’m a poet. What do you expect?

Some of it about men. The Yin and Yang of men. What's that all about?
Some are about men I have loved. Some women I’ve loved! Some whales! 

SELECTED POEMS OF CHELSIE DIANE

I have a poem about Dolly Parton. 

None of them are about any of it. 

The men are great poetry food.

I am a big woman. I have a big appetite. All for the poetry.

In our conversations at Zinque you have revealed:

You grew up country poor in Missouri.   What was that like? Sounds like a Patsy Cline song? Janis Joplin? 
My mama would die if she heard you say “poor.” In the words of Loretta Lynn: “We were poor but we had love, that’s the one thing my daddy made sure of.” You know I happen to think the richest people in the ‘Bu are poorer than we were. 

I’m a little more Dolly than Patsy: lived on a dirt road. We had chickens and goats and horses and cattle. I woke up dark early and broke ice on the cattle tank with an axe. I milked cows and bottle-fed calves and goats and gathered eggs, built a lot of fence. I raised a raccoon once. Opossum babies. Always a coyote getting cats. Raised so many kittens. 

You were married young, like Marilyn.
Twenty years old. Too young to drink at my wedding. Christian.

You made it through three years of medical school before deciding it wasn't for you.
My dad about killed me.

Can you, in 500 words or less, detail your arc from country Missouri to the Malibu? 
Dirt road. no cable. Read antique books from free boxes at estate sales. Got into med school at 18. Married, quit med school. Had babies. English and 18th century Brit Lit degrees. Divorced and moved us all to California - as we do.  

Went west to grow with the country.
Wrote a best-selling poetry book.  Founded Poems and Power.  Traveled the whole world. Unstoppable train. 

When did you begin traveling around the world giving lectures on notable women?
During Covid I came up with the idea. I have my kids every other week and thought I wanted to Indiana Jones it.  Go to these women’s homes. Interview neighbors. Friends. Teach from where they lived. I get obsessive. Every other week for years I was gone.

You immersed yourself in these women, so to pun.

I read their diaries. Sometimes up to 20 biographies/ auto-biographies. Listen to every interview imaginable. I have been known to get back with an ex to get tapes. It’s my dream job: Performance art meets Indiana Jones meets poetry teacher. 

Well I’ve got a bit of the Indiana Jones thing - digging up lost history and showing it to the world. Like those photos of Norma Jean/Marilyn Monroe as a Malibu surfer girl.
Ya, I have always traveled alone. God I have so many stories. During covid I was flying on empty planes. Sometimes to three or four different countries a month. 

Which were your favorites ? Who do you identify with the most?
I love them all. But Cleo is my woman. And Joan of Arc. and Princess Diana. I love a demonized woman. Marie Antoinette from the Palace of Versaille was epic. 

At Zinque you said you are going to Haight Ashbury to do a talk about Janis Joplin. In my opinion, one of the greatest cover songs of all time is Janis Joplin's version of Summertime.
I love Cry Baby.  It's where I feel her power. 

Yep, good call. She was exorcizing herself through music, kind of like Kurt Cobain if I dare compare her to a man.
Cry Baby is her punch the cop song. Her only mugshot from when she defended a woman being beat by a cop. Janis is rock and roll. It's time women remember our rock and roll. 

You broadcast your lectures on Zoom, correct?
Yes. On Zoom.

How long do your presentations last?
Supposed to be one hour but I usually go around two.

And how many subscribers do you have? 
Oh, thousands. Now almost from every country in the world. All are live but recorded and you get full access to my library to watch anytime you want. I used to teach one-off classes. Made a deal with God. If you feed me and my kids I will give everything to everybody. We’re fed. Not in Kansas anymore. So now you just get it all.  

You know, you should do something on a surfer girl who broke the mold: Layne Beachley or Lisa Anderson or Moana Jones. I could hook that up.
We’ll talk.

To watch every class Chelsie Diane has ever taught live and recorded: chelsiediane.com/poemsandpower

IG: @poemsandpeonies