John Giorno’s inspiration for Dial-A-Poem came from observing the innovations being made in the 1960s by his friends Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, among others, who were expanding their visual art practice beyond painting to film, performance, and multi-media installation.

“It occurred to me that poetry was seventy-five years behind painting and sculpture and dance and music…. In 1965, the only venues for poetry were the book and the magazine, nothing else. Multimedia and performance didn't exist. I said to myself, ‘If these artists can do it, why can't I do it for poetry?’”

In January 1969, Giorno rigged together a phone bank of 10 phones and industrial-sized answering machines at the Architectural League of New York, which housed and supported the initial version of the project. 

Anyone could call a number, at any hour of the day or night, and hear a randomly-selected poem read by one of 35 artists, poets, and musicians that Giorno had invited to contribute, such as Vito Acconci, John Ashbery, Joe Brainard, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Bernadette Mayer, Frank O’Hara, Peter Schjeldahl, Diane Wakowski, and Anne Waldman, among others. 

The “poems” weren’t what people expected them to be—there were Buddhist Mantras, speeches by members of the Black Panther Party, and an excerpt of John’s Cage’s infamous “4'33,” for example. When The New York Times published an article about the project and included the phone number, the lines were stretched far past their capacity and led to 250,000 busy signals at any given moment.

The project’s popularity led to its inclusion in Information, the landmark 1970 exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art curated by Kynaston McShine. Dial-A-Poem was connected to physical phones in the MoMA galleries, as well as to a public line, with recordings by many of the same artists, poets, and musicians that had been included in 1968, but with additional recordings by Eldridge Cleaver, Kathleen Cleaver, Diane DiPrima, Bernadine Dorhn, Barbara Guest, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rothenberg, Aram Saroyan, and Bobby Seale, among others. 

John Giorno with Joy Bang at Dial-A-Poem phones, New York, c. 1968-1970

”If a caller was bored with John Ashbery, they hung up and called again, and got John Cage, William Burroughs, Jim Carroll. I also discovered that creating a desire that is unfulfillable is the ultimate success.”

The selection of poems would change daily, and would often advocate urgent social issues of the time such as the Vietnam War, the AIDS crisis, and the sexual revolution. In 1971, the FCC, and then the FBI, investigated complaints of indecency and claims that the poems, many of which were explicitly sexual and political in nature, would incite violence. 

Dial-A-Poem reading schedules from 1970 Museum of Modern Art Log Book, 1970

And so Giorno chose another form of distribution for the Dial-A-Poem poets and launched a record label.

”With Dial-A-Poem, I stumbled on the phenomena of the telephone as a new media, connecting three things: publicity, a telephone number, and content accessed by a huge audience. Before Dial-A-Poem, the telephone was used one-to-one. Dial-A-Poem’s success gave rise to a Dial-A-Something industry: from Dial-A-Joke, Dial-A-Horoscope, Dial-A-Stock Quotation, Dial Sports, to the 900 number paying for a call, to phone sex, and ever more extraordinary technology. Dial-A-Poem, by chance, ushered in a new era in telecommunications.”

In 2012, again at The Museum of Modern Art, Giorno created a series of Dial-A-Poem interactive sculptures that contained 200 poems on a computer chip inside a phone. Visitors could pick up a phone and hear a single randomly-generated poem. In 2019, Giorno created a final edition of push-button phone sculptures that contained 282 recordings by 132 poets, artists, musicians, and activists.

The Architectural League 
of New York, 1968

Bob Bielecki, Sound engineer

Vito Acconci
John Ashbery
Bill Berkson
Ted Berrigan
Joe Brainard
Jim Brody
Michael Brownstein
William Burroughs
John Cage
Joe Ceravolo
Andrea Codresco
Kenward Elmslie
Larry Fagin
Dick Gallup
Allen Ginsberg
John Giorno
Brion Gysin
David Henderson

Lenore Kandel
Kenneth Koch
Jackson MacLow
Gerard Malanga
Bernadette Mayer
Taylor Mead
Frank O’Hara
Ron Padgett
John Perreault
Ed Sanders
Peter Schjeldahl
Tony Towle
Tom Veitch
Diane Wakowski
Anne Waldman
Lewis Warsh
John Weiners
Emmett Williams

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1970

Joe Brainard
Ted Berrigan
Michael Brownstein
William Burroughs
John Cage
Eldridge Cleaver
Kathleen Cleaver
Diane DiPrima
Bernadine Dorn
Kenward Elmslie
Allen Ginsberg
John Giorno
Barbara Guest
Brion Gysin

Abbie Hoffman
Lenore Kandel
Lewis MacAdams
Bernadette Mayer
Renfreu Neff
Frank O’Hara
Lennox Raphael
Jerry Rothenberg
Aram Saroyan
Bobby Seale
John Sinclair
Diane Wakowski
Anne Waldman
Emmett Williams
Heathcote Williams

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2012

Bob Bielecki, Sound engineer

Vito Acconci
Kathy Acker
Helen Adam
Miguel Algarin
Laurie Anderson
Penny Arcade
John Ashbery
Amiri Baraka
Bill Berkson
Charles Bernstein
Ted Berrigan
Joe Brainard
Michael Brownstein
Charles Bukowski
William Burroughs
David Byrne
John Cage
Jim Carroll
Nick Cave
Tom Clark
Clark Coolidge
Gregory Corso
Jayne Cortez
Robert Creeley
Diane Di Prima
Ed Dorn
Robert Duncan
Kenward Elmslie
Karen Finley
Four Horsemen,
Diamanda Galas
Allen Ginsberg
John Giorno
Daniela Gioseffi
Philip Glass
Barbara Guest
Brion Gysin
Jessica Hagedorn
Deborah Harry

Bernard Heidsieck
David Henderson
Bob Holman
Husker Du
Lenore Kandel
Kenneth Koch
Denise Levertov
Frank Lima
Jackson MacLow
Bernadette Mayer
Michael McClure
Taylor Mead
Eileen Myles
Frank O’Hara
Maureen Owen
Ron Padgett
Miquel Pinero
Lennox Raphael
Rene Ricard
Jerome Rothenberg
Aram Saroyan
Peter Schjeldahl
John Sinclair
Patti Smith
Gary Snyder
Jack Spicer
Lorenzo Thomas
Tony Towle
Paul Violi
Cabaret Voltaire
Andrei Vosnesensky
Tom Waits
Diane Wakowski
Anne Waldman
Lewis Warsh
Philip Whelan
John Wieners
Emmett Williams
Sonic Youth
Frank Zappa

Push-Button Edition, 2019

Bob Bielecki, Sound engineer

Vito Acconci
Kathy Acker
Helen Adam
Miguel Algarín 
Charles Amirkhanian 
Beth Anderson 
Laurie Anderson 
John Ashbery
Robert Ashley 
Amiri Baraka 
Barbara Barg
Bill Berkson 
Charles Bernstein 
Ted Berrigan 
Paul Blackburn 
Joe Brainard 
Glenn Branca
Jim Brodey
Otis Brown
Michael Brownstein 
Charles Bukowski 
William S. Burroughs 
William Burroughs Jr. 
Buster Poindexter 
David Byrne
Cabaret Voltaire
John Cage
Charlotte Carter
Jim Carroll
Nick Cave
Tom Clark
Coil
Clark Coolidge Gregory Corso
Jayne Cortez
Robert Creeley
Jackie Curtis
Edwin Denby
Diane di Prima
Ed Dorn
Didi Susan Dubelyew 
Robert Duncan 
Einstürzende Neubauten 
Kenward Elmslie
Karen Finley
Four Horsemen 
Diamanda Galás 
Allen Ginsberg 
John Giorno 
Daniela Gioseffi 
Michael Gira 
Philip Glass
Peter Gordon
Ted Greenwald 
Barbara Guest 
Brion Gysin 
Jessica Hagedorn 
Debbie Harry 
Bernard Heidsieck 
Richard Hell 
David Henderson 
Bob Holman 
Susan Howe 
Ericka Huggins 
Hüsker Dü
David Johansen

Joe Johnson 
Lenore Kandel 
Ken Kesey
Bill Knott 
Kenneth Koch 
Rochelle Kraut 
Joanne Kyger 
Denise Levertov 
Frank Lima
Arto Lindsay 
Lydia Lunch 
Steve McCafferty 
Jackson Mac Low 
Bernadette Mayer 
Michael McClure 
Taylor Mead
W. S. Merwin 
Robin Messing
Meredith Monk 
Charlie Morrow 
Eileen Myles
New Order
Frank O’Hara 
Claes Oldenburg 
Charles Olson
Joel Oppenheim 
Peter Orlovsky 
Maureen Owen 
Rochelle Owens 
Ron Padgett
Penny Arcade 
Miguel Piñero 
Charles Plymell 
Psychic TV
Lennox Raphael 
Ishmael Reed
Rene Ricard
Henry Rollins Band 
Jerome Rothenberg
Ed Sanders
Aram Saroyan 
Peter Schjeldahl 
John Sinclair 
Patti Smith 
Gary Snyder 
Sonic Youth
Jack Spicer 
Charles Stein 
Chris Stein
Ned Sublette 
Lorenzo Thomas 
Tony Towle 
Trungpa Rinpoche 
David Van Tieghem 
Paul Violi
Andrei Vosnesensky 
Tom Waits
Diane Wakoski 
Anne Waldman 
Lewis Warsh
Tom Weatherly
Philip Whalen
John Wieners
Emmett Williams
Robert Wilson & Christopher Knowles 
Frank Zappa