#dial-a-poem

[baronmagikcarp]

Give it a whirl

[dialoogid]

Various Artists - Biting Off the Tongue of a Corpse (1975)

[fabioafterdark]

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John Giorno - Suicide Sutra

from Giorno Poetry Systems' Disconnected (1974)

[modalities-of-care]

He’s a poet and the FBI know it: how John Giorno’s Dial-a-Poem alarmed the Feds

After receiving hundreds of thousands of calls, the poet’s project almost broke the New York telephone exchange – leading to an FBI investig

[zurich-snows]

One of the phones on display at the new John Giorno Dial-a-Poem exhibition in London. (Submitted by The John Giorno Foundation)

John Giorno didn't have access to the best technology when he started. Nothing more than a couple of answering machines patched together to a phone line. But he had access to the most avant garde poets of his generation — and that made "Dial-A-Poem" revolutionary.

The late New York-based poet and artist launched his free poetry service in 1969. The 24-hour hotline featured poems read by legendary poets like Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Amiri Baraka, and Patti Smith.

At its peak, "Dial-A-Poem" brought in millions of callers and put such a strain on the Upper East Side telephone exchange that it caught the ear of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Through the years, the service has gone through different iterations and numbers. And now, as part of a posthumous exhibition of Giorno's work, a new phone line has been launched in London, England.

Elizabeth Dee is the director of The John Giorno Foundation. She spoke with As It Happens host Carol Off about the history of "Dial-A-Poem" and the new exhibition. Here is part of their conversation.

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[nedison]

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Closed Circuits - Laurie Anderson (1981)

Laurie’s new film Heart of a Dog premieres on HBO tonight, so make sure you all check that out.

I’m lucky enough to be able to take part in a digital storytelling workshop next week where Laurie Anderson will be the keynote, so I’m getting primed up to meet her and hear her amazing stories.

[melvillehouse]

Poems for all those people, sitting at desks in New York office buildings » MobyLives

If you dialed the phone number [phone] between the years 1969 and 1971, you’d have been greeted with the recorded voice of William S. Burroughs, or John Cage, or Anne Waldman, or Jim Carroll, or any number of other…

“If you dialed the phone number [phone] between the years 1969 and 1971, you’d have been greeted with the recorded voice of William S. Burroughs, or John Cage, or Anne Waldman, or Jim Carroll, or any number of other writers, artists, and activists reading you a poem, a story, a song, a speech.”