In the world of modern literature, slam poetry and the name Andrea Gibson have grown to become synonymous over the past years. Having been performing poetry for twelve years and writing ever since she could hold a pencil, all the while receiving awards from different bodies and organizations, Andrea has been one of the very few writers who have made an impact as big as she has in the world of poetry, both spoken and written. With most of her poems focused mainly on social issues such as capitalism, patriarchy, bullying, heterosexism, gender norms and white privileges, she writes with a personal touch and with genuine emotion. “For example, if I’m speaking about war, I might step into a poem with a description of my cousin’s flight home from Afghanistan. I’m personally not moved by poetry in which the writer is not emotionally present in the piece,” she exclaims. She is a firm advocate for social change, and says that her poems “are focused on compassion and taking responsibility for creating a world that is kind.” She adds, “It is the everyday moment of waking up and paying heart-rooted attention to how much destruction there is in the world and deciding every day that the only way to change that is to create.” Andrea believes that people’s minds are not easily changed, but people’s hearts are, and tries to make everything that she comes up with reach the pulses of the listeners. Having taken up creative writing in St. John Maine College, and discovered spoken word poetry in a weekly poetry slam in Denver, Colorado, Andrea writes and performs with such intensity and such passion that
it’s difficult to contain yourself from being moved to tears in her presence. When asked about her ironic fear of performing in front of an audience, she says, “In spite of my stage fright, the stage is where I feel most alive. I started doing poetry slams because I love poetry and I knew my poems were written to be spoken out loud and slam was the one place that handed me a mic and said, ‘go for it.’” Since then, she has already released five spoken poetry albums including Bullets and Windchimes (2003), Swarm (2004), When the Bough Breaks (2006), Yellowbird (2009) and Flower Boy (2011) with Yellow Bird incorporating music and song in each poem. “I started incorporating music because I have so many friends who are incredible musicians; and I was really wanting the opportunity to collaborate artistically with people. It just generally has created a more inspiring artistic creative process for me. I always write to music, and nearly every time I read a poem on stage I have the song I wrote the poem to humming in my chest,” Andrea professes She has also released six books on her syndicated poems with her latest entitled The Madness Vase in 2011. She self-published four books: Trees That Grow in Cemeteries, Yellow Bird, What the Yarn Knows of Sweaters and Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns. Andrea Gibson is now currently working on a new album that showcases entirely love poems and collaborations with a bunch of amazing musicians. WEB: www.andreagibson.org; CDs & MERCH: www.indiemerch.com/andreagibson
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