Sundance Film Festival<\/a> and scheduled to air this fall on Apple TV+.<\/p>\n\u201cAndrea Gibson died in their home (in Boulder, Colorado) surrounded by their wife, Meg, four ex-girlfriends, their mother and father, dozens of friends, and their three beloved dogs,\u201d Monday\u2019s announcement reads in part.<\/p>\n
The film \u2014 exploring the couple\u2019s enduring love as Gibson battles cancer \u2014 is directed by Ryan White and includes an original song written by Gibson, Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile. During a screening at Sundance in January that left much of the audience in tears, Gibson said they didn\u2019t expect to live long enough to see the documentary. <\/p>\n
Tributes poured in Monday from friends, fans and fellow poets who said Gibson\u2019s words had changed their lives \u2014 and, in some cases, saved them. Many LGBTQ+ fans said Gibson\u2019s poetry helped them learn to love themselves. People with cancer and other terminal illnesses said Gibson made them less afraid of death by reminding them that we never really leave the ones we love.<\/p>\n
In a poem Gibson wrote shortly before they died, titled \u201cLove Letter from the Afterlife,\u201d they wrote: \u201cDying 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linda Williams Stay was \u201cawestruck\u201d when her son, Aiden, took her to hear Gibson perform at a bar in San Francisco a decade ago. Their poetry was electrifying, lighting up the room with laughter, tears and love. Gibson\u2019s poetry became a shared interest for the mother and son, and eventually helped Stay better understand her son when he came out as transgender. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy son this morning, when he called, we just sobbed together,\u201d Stay said. \u201cHe says, \u2018Mom, Andrea saved my life.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d she responded.<\/p>\n
Gibson\u2019s poetry later helped Stay cope with a cancer diagnosis of her own, which brought her son back home to St. George, Utah, to help take care of her. They were delighted when Gibson accepted their invitation to perform at an event celebrating the LGBTQ+ community in southern Utah.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was truly life-changing for our community down there, and even for our allies,\u201d Stay said. \u201cI hope that they got a glimpse of the magnitude of their impact for queer kids in small communities that they gave so much hope to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson was a native of Maine who moved to Colorado in the late 1990s and had served the past two years as the state\u2019s poet laureate. Their books included \u201cYou Better Be Lightning,\u201d \u201cTake Me With You\u201d and \u201cLord of the Butterflies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colorado Governor Jared Polis said Monday that Gibson was \u201ctruly one of a kind\u201d and had \u201ca unique ability to connect with the vast and diverse poetry lovers of Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a 2017 essay published in Out magazine, Gibson remembered coming out at age 20 while studying creative writing at Saint Joseph\u2019s College of Maine, a Catholic school. Identifying as gender queer, Gibson wrote that they didn\u2019t feel like a boy or a girl and cited a line of their poetry: \u201cI am happiest on the road\/ When I\u2019m not here or there \u2014 but in-between.\u201d<\/p>\n
Comedian Tig Notaro, an executive producer on the documentary and Gibson\u2019s friend of 25 years, shared on Instagram how the two came up together as performers in Colorado. Hearing Gibson perform for the first time was like witnessing the \u201cpure essence of an old-school genuine rock star,\u201d and their words have guided Notaro through life ever since, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe final past few days of Andrea\u2019s life were so painful to witness, but simultaneously one of the most beautiful experience of all of our lives,\u201d Notaro said. \u201cSurrounded by real human connection unfolding in the most unlikely ways during one of the most devastating losses has given me a gift that I will never be able to put into meaningful words.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson\u2019s illness inspired many poems about mortality, depression, life and what happens next. In the 2021 poem \u201cHow the Worst Day of My Life Became My Best,\u201d Gibson declared \u201cWhen I realized the storm\/was inevitable, I made it\/my medicine.\u201d Two years later, they wondered: \u201cWill the afterlife be harder if I remember\/the people I love, or forget them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEither way, please let me remember.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrea Gibson, a celebrated poet and performance artist who through their verse explored gender identity, politics and their…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":66122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[46853,46855,435,13672,4439,171,57,15320,46857,2741,2735,46856,12299,37601,46858,46854,61,67,132,68,436,424],"class_list":{"0":"post-66121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-andrea-gibson","9":"tag-brandi-carlile","10":"tag-celebrity","11":"tag-co-state-wire","12":"tag-colorado","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-jared-polis","16":"tag-linda-williams-stay","17":"tag-maine","18":"tag-me-state-wire","19":"tag-megan-falley","20":"tag-notable-deaths","21":"tag-poetry","22":"tag-sara-bareilles","23":"tag-tig-notaro","24":"tag-u-s-news","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-ut-state-wire","29":"tag-utah"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114854320114104790","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}