telephony so cool it's retro

About a year ago Curtis Fox, who produces and hosts a weekly poetry podcast for the Poetry Foundation, spoke with me about our dial-a-poem project, which is part of a telephone system we at the Writers House set up, figuring that it was beginning to be, or was well into, an age once again in which telephony was the site of convergence for many if not all things communication. Which is a probably an over-fancy way of saying something obvious about how many of us walk around with smartphones and do email, texting and of course phone-calling on the one portable device. So when our email weekly calendars get sent out, listing and linking to upcoming events at the Writers House for the coming week, at the top of that announcement is our phone number: 215-746-POEM (215-746-7636). When you're looking at this emailed announcement on a smartphone, the device will automatically make a kind of hyperlink of the phone number (it knows to do this for every 10-digit number it sees). Touch that link or scroll to it and hit your button, and the phone will automatically dial it. Because of this, we figured we ought to be there with some cool telephony, retro and cutting-edge both. Try dialing 215-746-7636 right now and see what I mean. Press "3" and you'll hear a single poem recording from PennSound - a poem read at the Writers House. Press "4" and you'll hear a 1-minute performance from a member of the Writers House community. Click here and listen to Curtis Fox's interview with me about this new/old version of "dial-a-poem."

dropped calls? feh, try dropped phone

Beth Kwon has dropped her iPhone, and now, on her blog, discusses her sad telephonic options and fate. "Mr. Jobs, you're killing me" is a memorable line here.

telephony is so retro it's cool

For his newest "Poetry off the Shelf" podcast, Curtis Fox interviews me about our new dial-a-poem service. Just dial (215) 746-POEM and press "3" to listen to today's poem. Have a listen. Here's the first announcement of the project.

dial-a-poem in P&W

The piece is called "Pause the Podcast and Dial-a-Poem": here. "The dial-a-poem concept dates back to 1969, when poet and performance artist John Giorno and his organization Giorno Poetry Systems set up a call-in recorded poetry project with ten phone lines in New York City. 'Using an existing communications system,' Giorno wrote in an introduction to a collection of featured dial-a-poem recordings, now available online, 'we established a new poet-audience relationship.' According to Al Filreis, one of the Kelly Writers House founders and the director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at Penn, comments on 6-POEM have been positive. 'The responses I've received so far typically say, 'Geez, this is so retro it's cool,'' Filreis wrote on his blog, 'and 'Everything seems to be converging on the phone,' and 'Telephony rocks.'"

dial-a-poem

Dial now: 215 746-7636, or: 215 746-POEM.

Happy '09 from all of us at 3805 Locust Walk in Philadelphia. With the new year we launch another new project. Call the phone number above any day, at any time, and hear


1) what's happening tonight or very soon at the Writers House
2) highlights of upcoming events
3) a featured poem read at the Writers House, from our archives
4) a featured recording of Writers House-affiliated students

We urge all friends and fans of the Writers House to add this number - which we call "6-POEM" - to their contacts list, speed dial, and address book.

"What's happening" will be updated almost every day. The other features will be updated frequently.

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The responses I've received so far typically say: "Geez, this is so retro it's cool," and "Everything seems to be converging on the phone," and "Telephony rocks."