Celebrated poet and performance artist Andrea Gibson passed away on Monday, they were 49 years old. Their death was due to Ovarian cancer.
Their death was announced by their wife Megan Falley who shared that the poet’s passing had been at their home in Boulder Colorado surrounded by friends and family.
“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,” the message read in part.
They also shared a statement from Gibson who said “Whenever I leave this world, whether it’s sixty years from now, I wouldn’t want anyone to say I lost some battle. I’ll be a winner that day.”
Gibson’s work explored their gender identity, politics, social justice, LGBTIQA+ issues and their experience of ovarian cancer.
Spoken word performances was Gibson’s entry point into the world of poetry. Their debut book Pole Dancing To Gospel Hymns came out in 2008. It was followed by The Madness Vase, Pansy, and Lord of the Butterflies.
They also published a book of quotes and phrases titled Take Me With You, and put out several albums of spoken word material and music including Yellowbird, Flower Boy, Truce and Hey Galaxy.
Gibson and Falley are the main subject sin the documentary Come See Me in the Good Light which has been getting high praise on the film festival circuit, and was the winner of the Audience Favourite Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film will stream on Apple TV later this year.
In a 2015 interview for Interview magazine Gibson spoke to comedian and actor Tig Notaro about being non-binary, sharing that they identified as gender queer.
“That just means that I don’t necessarily identify within a gender binary. I’ve never in my life really felt like a woman and I’ve certainly never felt like a man. I look at gender on a spectrum and I feel somewhere on that spectrum that’s not landing on either side of that.” they shared,
