Poet<\/a> and performance artist Andrea Gibson has died. They were 49.<\/p>\n Gibson, who used they\/them pronouns, had been the Poet Laureate<\/a> of Colorado since 2023.<\/p>\n Their death was announced in a statement on Instagram that began with a quote of theirs<\/a>: \u201cWhenever I leave this world, whether it\u2019s 60 years from now, I wouldn\u2019t want anyone to say I lost some battle. I\u2019ll be a winner that day.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement continued: \u201cAndrea Gibson was a winner today. On July 14th, at 4:16am, Andrea Gibson died in their home surrounded by their wife, Meg, four ex-girlfriends, their mother and father, dozens of friends and their three beloved dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n Gibson was born in Calais, Maine, on August 13, 1975. They published their first collection of poetry, Pole Dancing To Gospel Hymns, in 2008. Much of their work dealt with gender identity, social justice and LGBTQ+ issues.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Andrea Gibson kissing their wife, Megan Falley, at the premiere of ‘Come See Me In The Good Light’ at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival (Getty)<\/p>\n In 2021, Gibson was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The cancer reoccured the following year, causing them to cancel a planned tour. The 2025 documentary Come See Me in the Good Light followed Gibson and their wife Megan Falley as Gibson underwent chemotherapy.<\/p>\n The statement announcing their death described Gibson as: \u201cPoet Laureate of Colorado, world-touring spoken word artist, author of seven books, Calais Maine High School State Basketball Champion, and subject of the award-winning documentary, Come See Me in the Good Light, and so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n It continued: \u201cAndrea Gibson accomplished much on their 49 years on this planet. Though Andrea desperately wished to have lived a longer life, they could not have possibly lived a fuller one. Since learning they had cancer in 2021, Andrea has been a champion of finding beauty in unlikely places and gratitude in the hardest hours. Over the last four years, they danced with their diagnosis, and continually aimed their internal compass toward joy. <\/p>\n \u201cOne of the last things Andrea said on this plane was, \u2018I f***ing loved my life.\u2019 Not long ago, Andrea wrote a poem titled \u2018Love Letter From the Afterlife.\u2019 In it, they offered this line: \u2018I am more here than I ever was before. I am more with you than I ever could have imagined.\u2019 <\/p>\n \u201cToday, and all days forward, we hope you feel Andrea\u2019s enormous spirit and immense presence beside you. Meg and Heather, the authors of this post, have absolutely no idea how to encapsulate the magnitude and magnificence of a life like Andrea Gibson\u2019s, so they intend to keep writing, to keep telling Andrea\u2019s story, to keep Andrea alive in every way they can.<\/p>\n \u201cAndrea would want you to know that they got their wish. In the end, their heart was covered in stretch marks.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Andrea Gibson attending the premiere of ‘Come See Me In The Good Light’ at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah (Getty)<\/p>\n In his own statement<\/a>, Colorado\u2019s Governor Jared Polis wrote: \u201cIt is with a heavy heart that we mourn the loss of Andrea Gibson, an inspiring poet and Colorado\u2019s current Poet Laureate. <\/p>\n \u201cRenowned for inspiring poetry, advocacy for arts in education, and a unique ability to connect with the vast and diverse poetry lovers of Colorado, Andrea was truly one of a kind and will be deeply missed by personal friends as well as all who were touched by their poetry. <\/p>\n \u201cMy thoughts go out to Andrea\u2019s loved ones during this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-266008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114855373962548916","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Andrea](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2195943730-(1).jpg\")
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