John Giorno's Dial-A-Poem Hotline Launches in UK Alongside London Exhibition

John Giorno's Dial-A-Poem project becomes accessible to UK audiences starting 12 October, marking its first availability across the Atlantic. The initiative, which operated from 1968 until Giorno's death in 2019, features approximately 200 recordings by prominent artists including Allen Ginsberg, John Cage, and Patti Smith reading their own poetry. This UK launch coincides with Giorno's inaugural posthumous solo exhibition in London at Almine Rech. In a recent essay, Patrick Langley examined how the project used telephones to create intimate encounters with cultural figures, distributing poetry beyond traditional avant-garde settings. Giorno himself suggested Dial-a-Poem helped inspire the internet by offering immediate, personal access to artists typically inaccessible to the public.