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John Giorno Audio from Readings in Contemporary Poetry

Dia:Chelsea, October 14, 2010

This audio was recorded at Dia:Chelsea on October 14, 2010 as part of Dia's Readings in Contemporary Poetry series. Taylor Mead and John Giorno read that evening.

John Giorno was born in 1936 in Brooklyn and grew up in Roslyn Heights, New York. Giorno graduated from Columbia University in 1958. Four years later, he met Andy Warhol, who became an important influence for Giorno's developments on poetry, performance, and recordings. He famously was the subject of Andy Warhol’s first film, Sleep. He has collaborated with William Burroughs, John Ashbery, Ted Berrigan, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Robert Rauschenberg, and Robert Mapplethorpe, as well as Rirkirt Tirvanija, Pierre Huyghe, Elizabeth Peyton, and Ugo Rondinone, who is his partner. He is the author of ten books, including You Got to Burn to Shine, Cancer in my Left Ball, Grasping at Emptiness, Suicide Sutra, and has produced 59 LPs, CDs, tapes, cassettes, videopaks, and DVDs for Giorno Poetry Systems. He founded the AIDS Treatment Project and is an important force in the development of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.

To hear Vincent Katz's introduction to John Giorno, please click here.

Video: Taylor Mead and John Giorno Video from Readings in Contemporary Poetry, Video

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