Andrea Gibson on New Role as Colorado's Poet Laureate

Our state’s newest poet laureate, Andrea Gibson, is a Coloradan by choice, not by birth. Gibson (they/them), who grew up in rural Maine, says they went to college “basically to play basketball, and was lucky enough to end up with a writing degree." After that, Gibson wanted to see the country, and took off on a road trip with a friend to discover America and find a place to put down some roots. When visiting Boulder, Gibson recalls thinking they could live there.

And then they moved to New Orleans.

“I was only there for a year before I ended up moving to Boulder. I wanted to find a place that was healthy. I was drinking so much beer in New Orleans,” Gibson say with a laugh. “And then I got to Boulder and found out that everyone might ride their bikes here a lot, but they drink just as much beer.”

Luckily for Colorado, Gibson liked Boulder enough to stay for 24 years and counting. In that time, they were a four-time Denver Grand Slam Champion in poetry, finished fourth at the 2004 National Poetry Slam and placed third at both the 2006 and 2007 Individual World Poetry Slams. In 2008, Gibson won the Women of the World Poetry Slam in Detroit. Since then, they’ve published seven books of poetry, most recently You Better Be Lightning, which Gibson wrote about, and during, a successful battle with ovarian cancer.

That’s not the only fight Gibson has taken on in their time as a working Colorado poet. Gibson built a career on writing about social justice, from civil rights for the LGBTQ+ community to gun control to the environment, and more. “My partner makes fun of me,” Gibson jokes, “because she says there’s not an issue I don’t talk on: 'You’ve got something to say about everything.' And it’s true! Like this last month, I’ve been working and writing on health care reform. There’s so much to say and to do, but it’s all the same thing. How do we care about the world? How do we care about people?”

Gibson sees their position as poet laureate as central to helping the Colorado community answer exactly that question. “One of my best friends, her name is Bethy [Leonardi], and she’s one of the founders of a nonprofit by the name of A Queer Endeavor. They go into schools and teach everyone from teachers to bus drivers how to create safer spaces for LGBTQ+ youth," Gibson says. "I plan to work side by side with different organizations like that.” More upcoming plans include reading poems at a nursing home, talking with social workers about the impact of poetry on their work and anti-bullying programs at schools. Those are all “things that I hadn’t even considered before that are coming my way because of this new position," Gibson says. "It’s just amazing.”

Gibson says that everything they know about poetry came through the work of other Colorado poets before them, including their predecessor, Bobby LeFebre. Gibson calls him a role model. “I have so much respect for him,” they say. “He’s an incredible human and an incredible artist, and he’s done so much for the state. He did before he was poet laureate, and will continue to after. I learned this from the poets of Colorado: Being a poet isn’t so much about how we show up to the page. It’s how we show up to the world. It’s what inspires my writing, and it’s what will pull me forward now and in the future.”

The offer to become poet laureate of Colorado came at just the right time, says Gibson: “I’d been traveling the world for years and years, but I’ve been home for three years now because of my cancer diagnosis and the pandemic. So when I got the call [from Governor Polis, it was perfect. Perfect timing.”

It wasn’t just serendipity: In a lot of ways, the artist was coming full circle. “That was very much what I felt,” Gibson confirms. “I’d been out and about and on the road all over the world, doing so much. None of that work would have been possible had it not been for all that I learned right here. So to have this moment is wonderful.”

Community service might be at the heart of the job of poet laureate, but it’s the written and spoken word that serves as foundation, and Gibson says they’re ready for the challenge.

“I don’t think peoples’ minds change easily,” Gibson says, “but I think their hearts can change in an instant. To me, that is the greatest value of art. There are all these ways we want to change our hearts, really to open them, open them to each other. Poetry and art in general can be this amazing connective tool. It engenders empathy. And sometimes I can forget this, but adding beauty to the world is a thing unto itself. We were born astonished. We should never grow out of our astonishment.”