Poet, performance artist and activist John Giorno died on 11 October. Born in 1936, Giorno became a significant player in the 1960s New York avant garde scene. A partner of Andy Warhol, it’s him shown sleeping in Warhol’s Sleep (1963). In 1968 Giorno started the Dial-A-Poem answering machine service. He also ran the Giorno Poetry Systems record label, specialising in spoken word albums featuring his own readings alongside longtime friends Brion Gysin and William Burroughs, among other projects. Giorno also worked with Robert Moog on a poetry installation at New York’s St Mark’s Church in 1966. In 2007 director Antonello Faretta filmed Giorno in Italy for Nine Poems In Basilicata, and in 2018 Soft Skull published Giorno’s Subduing Demons In America: Selected Poems 1962–2007, edited by Wire contributor Marcus Boon.