The Literature of Rebellion The voice of dissent in contemporary American Literature and Society.
Dial-A-Poem Poets A New York City poetry project started in 1969. It used the telephone system, to spread poetry recorded by poets and artists. For a period of about 4 years, anyone could dial 212-628-0400 on a rotary telephone and hear a poem. Dial-a-Poem offered poetry for the everyday caller. The program of poems changed regularly; anyone could make a phone call each day and encounter a different work by a new artist.
History of Dial-A-Poem After having a telephone conversation with famous Beat writer William S. Burroughs in 1968, John Giorno a poet and artist thought of the Dial-A- Poem Poets concept. Fifteen phone lines were connected with individual answering machines: people would call and listen to poems from various live recordings. After the experiment with ended, Dial-a-Poem continued through album releases of the poetry into the 90s.
John Giorno Poet and artist who founded the not-for-profit production company Giorno Poetry Systems (GPS) and organized a number of early multimedia poetry experiments and events. A friend of Andy Warhol, he was the subject of Warhol s 1963 experimental anti-film Sleep. Which was a long-take piece lasting 5 hours and 21 minutes, of Giorno sleeping. He was a close friend of William S. Burroughs, who he often collaborated with. Giorno has been an influence many underground artists, poets and musicians.
Giorno Poetry Systems Founded in 1965, GPS was an artists collective and record label that used innovation and technology to spread poetry to a wide audience. There were many famous avant-garde artists, writers and musicians were involved in the projects. The GPS label released albums regularly until the late 80s. In the 90s, GPS released a box set collecting its recordings of William S. Burroughs. Giorno in front of equipment for Dial-a-Poe m, 1968 1972
Some of the GPS Artists Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, William S. Burroughs, Ken Kesey, Charles Bukowski, Jim Carroll, Sylvia Plath, Kathy Acker, Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Phillip Class, John Cage, Frank Zappa are some of the artists you may (or may not) have heard of Also in later years GPS involved bands such as Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Psychic TV, Coil, Sonic Youth, Cabaret Voltaire and New Order. The first GPS album release The Dial-A-Poem Poets was produced in 1972. The final release was Cash Cow a compilation of the best recordings from 1965-1993.
The GPS Albums There were 18 albums produced over the life of GPS, and 6 compilations. The early albums were mostly spoken word and poetry, later albums featured musical collaborations. The albums were innovative works, employing multi-grooves and surreal cover artwork. You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With (1981) features the last side cut as a triplegroove, so that where the stylus lands on the lead in-groove determines which artists' track plays.
The Variety of Poems The Dial-a-Poem poetic works were a wide variety of styles. They ranged from traditional poems to pieces such as that by Taylor Mead mimicking the sounds of a motorcycle: Brrrrruuuumm, brruuuuuum, craaaaaash, craaaash!" Many of the poetic works covered themes such as the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and other social and political themes of the times. As well as deeply personal and abstract poetic artworks.
Click-A-Homework There is no reading for this week... Instead, I want all of you to go to the website below which contains almost all of the Dial-a-Poem back catalog. Choose one track, listen to it, think about it, and come back to class so we can discuss it! I will play your chosen poem to the class, and we will talk about what we all think about it. You will have to say, why you chose the piece and what you think it means. www.ubu.com/sound/gps.html
Homework Instructions 1. Visit the website www.ubu.com/sound/gps.html 2. Choose any track, and listen to it. 3. Write down the album name, the poet, the title and the track number. (So we can play it in class.) 4. Think about it! So you can answer questions like... Why did you choose it? and What do you think it means? or How did it make you feel? 5. This will go towards your participation grade for the class. So please come prepared. 6. I will ask for volunteers. Please understand, I know which students are active participants in the class and which are not. 7. I will be watching, listening and taking notes!!!