Subduing the
Demons in America
An interview with John Giorno

By Bill DeNoyelles

Part 1

John Giorno remains a fierce, independent voice in American Gay Culture. His work as a poet, performer, activist and fundraiser spans over four decades. Without any loss of his manic energy Giorno continues to champion the work of friends like Andy Warhol, William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Unrepentant and radical, he displays remarkable insight into the turmoil of the sixties, the explosive sexual jubilation of the seventies and the viral devastation of the eighties. A practicing Tibetan Buddhist in the Nyingma tradition since 1971, John Giorno is meditation in action. His AIDS Treatment Project of the 1980’s delivered hard cash to those suffering and in need–directly, without middleman or politics. If you were sick and needed the cash, he gave it to you. He continues this work today, setting up endowments for those who are seriously ill with little or no resources. Traveling worldwide Giorno continues to perform his poetry for new generations introducing works that honor gone friends while revealing outlaw history.

In Tibetan Buddhism great emphasis is placed on the proper conduct of body, speech and mind. If you were to divide gay creativity into body, speech and mind John Giorno would be mind. His is the work of compassionate, conscious action. His audio works swirl and echo like the constant chatter of thoughts that hammer, disappear and resurface. Having put together the Dial A Poem series in the early seventies he went on to adopt a rock n’ roll format that integrated down town avant-garde musicianship into his rapid fire delivery. He is the unrecognized seminal influence on rap.

I spoke with Giorno at his top floor loft at 222 Bowery on December 7, 2002, a former YMCA (over 100 years old) that at one time housed a swimming pool and a gigantic Gymnasium that served as the studio for the abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. The building has also played host to writer William Burroughs who turned the first floor boy’s locker room into his living quarters. It was Burroughs who named his loft The Bunker. Now a Tibetan Buddhist meditation and study center, The Bunker also serves as a shrine to William’s memory complete with bed, typewriter, cane and shotgun art. John displayed a boyish excitement as he gave me the grand tour pointing out a Keith Haring drawing on the marble partition of a bathroom stall. The building abounds with the psychic electricity of it’s past.

Part 1: Subduing the Demons in America
Part 2: Money, School and Drug
Part 3: Balling Buddha
Part 4: Up Against the Wall
Part 5: The Process
Part 6: Dial A Poem
Part 7: Grasping At Emptiness
Part 8: Kissing, Intimacy and Affection
Pornographic Poem/John Giorno