Melody Paloma

In 1982 the late Hannah Weiner, master ventriloquist and psychic host to corporeal and non-corporeal bodies alike, published Code Poems. The text, constructed entirely using the two and three letter codes within the INTERNATIONAL CODE OF SIGNALS For the Use of All Nations, (a visual system once used by mariners to communicate via flags, lights and morse code), offers a multifarious reading experience, a weirding of plain language. Here, in her own attempt at clairvoyance, Melody Paloma, with the assistance of retired seafarers Neil Butt and Leigh Webster, decodes and recodes the text in a performance that reimagines Weiner’s scarcely documented performances throughout New York in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

This work is performed with the assistance of Neil Butt, Leigh Webster, Harry Reid, Gareth Morgan and Tom Smith. Before the publication of Code Poems, Weiner originally performed a number of versions of this work using semaphore signals, morse, flag hoists, flashing light signals, megaphones, and flares.

Code Poems is available as a free PDF here:

Documentation