Andrea Gibson wasn't, in most circles, a gigantic celebrity'but their face and words were visible and prominent. Gibson, the poet laureate of Colorado, who died on Monday, began their career with spoken-word performances in cafes and at open mics around Boulder. Despite their intense stage fright, Gibson would stand in front of crowds of strangers and recite intensely confessional verse about their anxieties, their queerness, their heartbreaks. As their public profile rose, Gibson kept speaking to strangers'though more often than before, the audience wasn't in the same room. In the 2010s, when slam poetry exploded in popularity, Gibson began appearing online'in Button Poetry recordings, in a video submission for the NPR Tiny Desk competition during which they were accompanied by piano. When the pandemic, and then cancer, prevented them from touring and performing live, they held virtual readings and distributed videos recorded at home. They asked listeners to have an experience with...
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