John Giorno (December 4, 1936 – October 11, 2019) was a poet and performer, spoken word
record producer and AIDS activist. After attending Columbia, he led a conventional daytime life as a
stockbroker but met Andy Warhol in his mid-20s and became quickly involved with the Downtown art
and poetry world. He is widely known as the subject of Warhol’s first film, Sleep. Within the poetry
community he was not only a writer but a producer and purveyor. Inspired by Robert Rauschenberg’s
Experiments in Art and Technology, he organized the Dial-a-Poem series, making poems freely
available over the telephone, and produced many compilation spoken word records that included a
range from Laurie Anderson and John Cage to Patti Smith and Amiri Baraka. He lived at 222
Bowery, later occupying William Burroughs’ residence, known as the Bunker. Giorno was a celebrant
of queer sex in his writing, performances, and in his creation of the AIDS Treatment Project.
John Giorno
