Course:Andrea Gibson
| CRWR 501P 003 |
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| Advanced Writing of Poetry |
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| Important Course Pages |
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Andrea Gibson (they/them) is the current poet laureate of the state of Colorado and a longstanding darling of the queer community. They have published six collections of poetry: Dancing to Gospel Hymns (2010), The Madness Vase (2011), Pansy (2015), Lord of the Butterflies (2018), and You Better Be Lightning (2021). They first made waves as a slam poetry champion, and their readings are a core part of their poetry practice to this day. They go on popular tours, but they also regularly post videos of short readings on Instagram that reach a wide audience. I was first introduced to Andrea’s work by a friend who doesn’t write poetry, but was an avid fan because she was so touched by the heart in Andrea’s work. This ethos of accessibility has always been an important part of my art-making in any medium, and Andrea was the first poet I encountered who demonstrated what that can look like in poetry. Andrea’s work is also deeply emotional, although not sentimental. They tackle many hard issues, including discrimination and trauma, but they do so while navigating deep empathy, vulnerability, and gratitude. Reading their poems is like wading through multiple emotional layers, and then finally rising to some kind of birds-eye or root-deep level where it all ties in together. Here’s an excerpt from one of their posts:
You caught every tantrum
I threw with your bare hands, chucked
it back at that blood moon, said “it’s
okay, everyone’s survival looks a little
bit like death sometime.”
This layered approach lends such wisdom to their work; like many others, I experience solace, reflection, and growth when reading Andrea’s poems. I strive for the same goal with my work: to put all the emotions out on the table, even the ones I (we) don’t want to admit, and then to find something heartening, unifying, and resilient in the stew that comes together.