Diana Lucille Lang (born 1983, Bad Hersfeld, West Germany), known professionally as D. L. Lang, is an American poet. Her poetry is anthologized in over 80 anthologies.[6] She has published 16 full-length books of poetry, and served as the Poet Laureate of Vallejo, California.[7][8][9][1]
While in college Lang worked as a video editor at television station KXOK-LD,[2][16] as webmaster for University of Oklahoma student radio station the Wire,[17] and as a band promoter for Grey from Enid, Oklahoma.[11][16] She also created documentary films and music videos, including Liquid Wind, a kiteboarding film by director Charles Maupin that features an interview with Mike Morgan,[18] which was broadcast on Oklahoma PBS affiliate OETA,[19] and The Hebrew Project,[2] a Hebrew language film that featured University of Oklahoma professors Ori Kritz and Norman Stillman, which was broadcast on The Jewish Channel.[20]
Lang's poem "American Dream,"[24] originally included in the 2022 anthology Reimagine America: An Anthology for the Future will be included in The Vagabond Lunar Collection which features the social justice themed work of 127 poets.[25] Mark Lipman of Vagabond Books compiled the collection for Samuel Peralta's Lunar Codex time capsule project,[25] which launches art stored on memory cards and nano-fiche to the moon.[26] The anthology is included in Codex Polaris, traveling to the Nobile Crater as part of NASA's Artemis program,[27] and is expected to launch to the moon in November 2024 or February 2025.[25]
Vallejo Poet Laureate
D. L. Lang was appointed Poet Laureate of Vallejo, California in September 2017 and served through December 2019.[28][29] As poet laureate Lang edited the poetry anthology Verses, Voices & Visions of Vallejo[11][30] and performed 141 times in 18 different cities.[31] Lang gave the invocation[32] at the 2019 Vallejo Women's March.[33] During her tenure she also performed her poetry at many local events, including Vallejo Unites Against Hatred,[34] Unity Day,[35] International Peace Day [36] and Why Poetry Matters.[37] Lang also gave a presentation on Emma Lazarus and Alicia Ostriker for AAUW Voices of Change.[38] Lang also judged seven contests[31] including the county Poetry Out Loud high school recitation competition,[39] Joel Fallon poetry scholarship,[13] Solano County Fair talent competition,[13] Vallejo poetry slam,[28] and county library teen writing competition.[40] She performed regularly on air on KZCT[13] and on stage at Poetry by the Bay.[41] Like her predecessor,[42] she led the Poetry in Notion poetry circle[41] and hosted annual events for National Poetry Month.[1] She attended poets laureate conferences in Tujunga and San Mateo.[43][44] Lang was preceded as Vallejo's poet laureate by Dr. Genea Brice,[3] and succeeded by Jeremy Snyder, then host of Poetry by the Bay.[45] The California State Senate, California Arts Council, and Vallejo City Council awarded Lang with proclamations for serving as poet laureate.[46]
2020-present
In 2020 she was a featured act at the Solano County Virtual Fair,[47] and judged the library's teen poetry competition.[48] In 2021 she performed virtually for Poetry Flash[49] and Point Arena Third Thursday Poetry.[13] She also performed with Brice and Snyder at Alibi Bookshop,[50] and for the Jewish Democrats of Solano County.[51] In 2022 she performed for the AAUW,[52] Solano County Library,[53] San Francisco Public Library,[54] a beat poetry festival at the Empress Theatre,[55][56] the abortion rights group RiseUp4AbortionRights,[57] the Beat Museum[58] and LaborFest with the Revolutionary Poets Brigade,[59] judged the Solano library's teen poetry competition,[60] and appeared on the Rooted in Poetry podcast.[61] In 2023 she performed at the Flyway Festival,[62] Cordelia Library for Poetry Month,[63] Vallejo Poetry Festival,[64] Laborfest at the Tenderloin Museum,[65] Revolution Books in Berkeley to support freeing Iranian political prisoners,[66] and a labor protest against Elon Musk.[67][68] In 2023 she was also one of ten winners of the Curbside Haiku contest in Tulsa, Oklahoma,[46][62][69] and performed at the 2023 Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma. [46][70] Lang was a member of the committee to choose Snyder’s successors as poet laureate,[71][72][73] and judged the Solano Library's teen poetry competition.[74][75]
In 2024 Lang performed at the Starry Plough Pub in Berkeley in support of Toomaj Salehi.[76] She also gave a reading at a Jewish art exhibit at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum,[77] with fellow poets laureate at the Fairfield Library,[78] the Solano County Fair,[79] Mare Island Art Studios,[80] and the Beat Museum.[81] She also interviewed on KZCT.[82] In March 2024 Lang was among several Vallejo women activists who received a proclamation from the Vallejo City Council in honor of Women's History Month.[83] She also performed at Ink and Inspiration in Enid, Oklahoma,[84] the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival in Ada, Oklahoma,[85][46] and the 2024 Woody Guthrie Folk Festival.[86] She continues to perform poetry live on air at KZCT radio.[87] Radio stations KPOO, KPFA, and KALW have also broadcast Lang’s poetry.[46]
Whispers Across Languages Barcelona Literary. 2024. ISBN9798344221656
Ain't No Deadbeats Around Here Like a Blot from the Blue. 2024. ISBN9781300879169
Poetry publications
Lang, D. L., "Prayer for Shomerim," Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, February 18, 2015[91]
Lang, D. L., “Sheltering in Places,” Benicia Herald, September 23, 2016[92]
Lang, D. L., “Worldly Windows,” Benicia Herald, November 4, 2016 [93]
Lang, D. L., “Stay,” Benicia Herald, December 3, 2016 [94]
Lang, D. L., “Train Whistle Polka,” Benicia Herald, December 15, 2017 [95]
Lang, D. L., “Benicia Bound,” Benicia Herald, January 5, 2018 [96]
Lang, D. L., “Love Poetry Capital Blockade,” Benicia Herald, February 23, 2018 [97]
Lang, D. L., “How to Swim through a Tornado,” Benicia Herald, June 15, 2018 [98]
Lang, D. L., “The Woodpecker’s Beat,” Benicia Herald, September 7, 2018 [99]
Lang, D. L., "Turning: A Poem for Yom Kippur," Reformjudaism.org, September 17, 2018[100]
Lang, D. L., "49 Lights," Vallejo Times Herald, pg. A9, March 19, 2019
Lang, D. L., "No Other Planet," Poetry Expressed Vol. 5, Spring 2020[101]
Lang, D. L., "One Thousand Per Day," Frost Meadow Review, April 1, 2020[102]
Lang, D. L., “What Remains is Love,” Benicia Herald, pg A9, April 24, 2020
Lang, D. L., “July 4th, 2020,” Benicia Herald, pg A3, July 26, 2020
Lang, D. L., “Pandemic Mismanagement,” Benicia Herald, pg A3, September 30, 2020
Lang, D. L., “Commonalities,” The Lake County Bloom, September 16, 2021[103]
Lang, D. L., “These Wild Winds,” The Lake County Bloom, September 23, 2021[104]
Lang, D. L., “American Dream,” The Free Venice Beachhead, Vol. 470, January 2022[24]
Lang, D. L., “Columbia River Gorgeous,” KALW Bay Poets, August 24, 2022[105]
Lang, D. L., "Labor Shortage," Work & the Anthropocene, September 5, 2022[106]
Lang, D. L., ”What Dreams Danced Here?” The Lake County Bloom, October 20, 2022[107]
Lang, D. L., ”The Northwest” The Lake County Bloom, October 20, 2022[107]
Lang, D. L., “Fire, Water, Wind,” Benicia Herald, January 8, 2023, page A5
Lang, D. L., "Eternal," Benicia Herald, April 9, 2023
Lang, D. L., "Who?" People's Tribune, October 18, 2023[108]
Lang, D. L., "Ars Poetica," Vallejo Weekly, October 19, 2023[62]
Lang, D. L., “October is Filled with Sorrow,” Benicia Herald, October 22, 2023, page A5
Lang, D. L., “I Pray for My People,” Benicia Herald, November 5, 2023, page A5
Lang, D. L., “This Hanukkah,” Benicia Herald, December 8, 2023, page B5
Lang, D. L., "Lightfoot Lives On," eMerge Magazine, January 8, 2024[6]
Lang, D. L., “MLK,” Benicia Herald, January 14, 2024, page A6
Lang, D. L., “In Wartime how Dare we Love?” Benicia Herald, February 25, 2024
Lang, D. L., “Owasso,” Benicia Herald, March 1, 2024
Lang, D. L., ”Falling Stars,” California Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 1, Spring 2024[109]
Lang, D. L., “Love Letter to Louisiana,” Suisun Valley Review, #40, Spring 2024, May 17, 2024
Lang, D. L., “Outlaw Code,” Beat Poetry Outlaw series, Fevers of the Mind, May 22, 2024.[110]
Lang, D. L., “To Fulfill the Workers’ Dream,” Forward Together: CPUSA 32nd National Convention Program Book, pg 8.[111]
Lang, D. L., ”Ignite,” “The Freedom to Love,” “There are Seven Blessings at the End of the Rainbow,” Pride 2024, Alien Buddha Press, June 1, 2024.[112]
Lang, D. L., “Dylan,” “Hope of All People,” “Welcome…Type HARD!!!” Hard Rain Poetry Series Inspired by Bob Dylan, Fevers of the Mind, June 4, 2024.[113]
Lang, D. L., "Displaced Lines," eMerge Magazine, July 8, 2024.[114]
Lang, D. L., "The Dreamers," "Poem for Woody Guthrie," "Revolution in Rhyme," "Living Dead," "Ode to Bob Dylan," Fevers of the Mind, July 26, 2024[115]
Lang, D. L., “We Must Pick Up the Pieces,” People's Tribune August 21, 2024[116]
Articles and essays
Lang, Diana L., "Enid's Ties to Railroad History," Enid News & Eagle, October 16, 2019[117]
"A Collective Experience to Learn" Global Pandemic Crisis: A Series of Literary Essays on Quarantine Transcendent Zero Press. 2020. ISBN9781946460257
"Oklahoma Community Protests the Election of White Nationalist," People’s Tribune, August 18, 2023[118]
"Oklahoma Voters Successfully Recall White Nationalist," People’s Tribune, April 25, 2024[119]
"How Enid, Okla., united to remove a local fascist from office," People's World, May 7, 2024[120]
"Proletarian verse and protest songs thrive at Woody Guthrie Folk Fest in Oklahoma," People's World, July 22, 2024.[121]