John Giorno and William S. Burroughs: November 4, 1974

The Poetry Center, in collaboration with Gay Sunshine, co-presents John Giorno and William S. Burroughs, each reading from their work. Giorno performs two of his signature poems ("Hamburger Meditation/The Big Mac" and "Suicide Sutra"). Burroughs reads "Sexual Conditioning," two short stories from Exterminator! (Viking Press, 1973; an earlier collaboration between Burroughs and Brion Gysin, The Exterminator, had been published in 1960 in San Francisco by Dave Haselwood's Auerhahn Press), and "Virus B-23" from a novel-in-progress. 

The writers are introduced by Winston Leyland, editor of Gay Sunshine Press and Gay Sunshine Journal (successor, c. 1971, to "the Berkeley gay lib tabloid" Gay Sunshine). Leyland's Angels of the Lyre: An Anthology of Gay Poetry (Panjandrum Press and Gay Sunshine Press, 1975) would appear the year after this event, and include work by both Giorno and Burroughs, among many other gay male poets and writers. The program takes place in the main sanctuary at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, on Franklin and Geary Streets in San Francisco.