Dialing Up the Dollars: Giorno Poetry Systems Names Inaugural Recipients of New Need-Based Grant
7May 8, 2026
Giorno Poetry Systems(GPS), the New York–based nonprofit founded in 1965 by pathbreaking artistJohn Giorno, known for hisDial-a-Poems, has announced twelve recipients of its new need-based grant. The so-called Treat a Strangergrantsthemselves are a relaunch of GPS’sAIDS Treatment Projectgrants, which it issued between 1984 and 1994, and are named for Giorno’s frequent admonition, “Treat a complete stranger with the same compassion you would treat a lover or a good friend.”
The grant winners are determined annually via a nomination process, with a rotating jury of LGBTQIA+ artists, poets, and musicians meeting three times in the span of several months. During the first meeting jury members suggest and talk about grantee needs; at the second gathering, they nominate and discuss potential recipients. Winners are determined by a vote taken at the final meeting; the jury may award the funds to a single artist or to many.
Each of the dozen artists selected this year will receive an unrestricted grant of $4,545. The funds are meant to assist with such daily expenses as food, housing, health care, child care, retirement, and emergencies.
The inaugural grantee cohort comprises Samiya Bashir; Malcolm-X Betts; Pe Ferreira; Mercy Kelly; the estate of Agosto Machado, who died in March, after the selection process was completed; Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo); Gavilán Rayna Russom; Jacolby Satterwhite; Keioui Keijaun Thomas; Christopher Udemezue; and two artists who chose to remain anonymous.
Giorno Poetry Systems in a press release noted that members of this year’s jury remained anonymous in order “to center the needs of the grant recipients.”
“GPS is all about artists showing up for other artists, which is a simple idea that can take many different forms,” said Anthony Huberman, executive artistic director of GPS, in a statement. “With the Treat a Stranger grant, GPS allows artists, poets, and musicians to award unrestricted cash grants to other artists, poets, and musicians. The cost of living in New York never seems to stop rising, and this initiative builds on what John Giorno established in the 1980s: in order to continue making great art, artists need money for securing their own livelihoods.”