Andrea Gibson was a queer poet who’s been called a “rock star of poetry slams.” They died at 49 after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer four years ago.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Colorado poet laureate Andrea Gibson has died. They were 49. Gibson was a queer poet who’s been called a rock star of poetry slams. They were diagnosed with ovarian cancer four years ago. NPR’s Elizabeth Blair has this appreciation.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: Andrea Gibson could be intimate and gentle with a bit of wry urgency.
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ANDREA GIBSON: (Reading) My friend musters every bit of new-age jargon she can fit onto her tongue and says, what if you are the love of your life? I think, oh, my God, I hope that’s not true ’cause I am absolutely not my type.
RYAN WHITE: Andrea was born and raised in rural Maine, so they like to joke that they knew very few words.
BLAIR: Filmmaker Ryan White followed Andrea Gibson after they were diagnosed with ovarian cancer for the documentary “Come See Me In The Good Light.”
WHITE: So they had this magic with words in a way that wasn’t your grandma’s poetry. It wasn’t your English school poetry. It was a way that really cut to the bone of emotion.
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GIBSON: (Reading) Every time I ever said, I want to die, I meant I am willing to do anything to live, even leave this world forever, even build a new home atop a nebula, stick a straw into a buried lake on Mars, get tipsy on antigravity and invent new constellations walking lines between undiscovered stars.
BLAIR: Andrea Gibson became a force at poetry slams when they moved to Colorado. Their poetry books include “You Better Be Lightning,” “Lord Of The Butterflies” and, with their wife Megan Falley, “How Poetry Can Change Your Heart.” Growing up, Gibson was a 5-foot-3 basketball star in their hometown in Maine and went to college on a basketball scholarship. That’s where they discovered writing. Gibson wrote about dark topics, including depression. Falley, who is also a writer, says poetry helped Gibson make sense of the world.
MEGAN FALLEY: Andrea’s work, I think, always – they always used their pen to poke holes in the dark and bring light into any situation.
BLAIR: Gibson wrote a poem for Falley called “Love From The Afterlife” (ph).
FALLEY: (Reading) My love, I was so wrong. Dying is the opposite of leaving. When I left my body, I did not go away. That portal of light was not a portal to elsewhere, but a portal to here. I am more here than I ever was before.
BLAIR: Falley says she was with Gibson when they died July 14, along with four ex-girlfriends, their mother and father, dozens of friends and their three beloved dogs.
Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.
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