An American touring poet and social activist, Andrea Gibson first took to open mikes in 1999 and issued a debut poetry album, Bullets and Windchimes, in 2003. Known for intense delivery and lyrics that confront social ills alongside gender constructs and numerous additional themes—Gibson identifies as genderqueer—the artist rapidly earned recognition within the spoken-word community through precise live performances and recordings. The 2006 BBC documentary Slam Planet included Gibson, who claimed victory at the first Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2008. Write Bloody Publishing released the performer’s initial printed poetry collection, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, that same year. Gibson co-established the online suicide-prevention network Stay Here with Me in 2013, and the seventh album, label debut Hey Galaxy, entered the Top Five of Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart in 2017.
Raised in Calais, Maine, Gibson later studied at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine in Standish. After a period in New Orleans, the poet moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1999. Later that year, the first open mike appearance occurred in Denver. Several years of consistent slam participation and competition produced the self-released Bullets and Windchimes in 2003. Swarm appeared in 2004, followed by the third album When the Bough Breaks in 2006, the same year Gibson was featured in the BBC documentary Slam Planet. In 2008 Gibson secured the inaugural Women of the World Poetry Slam title in Detroit, Michigan and released a first poetry book, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, through Write Bloody Publishing. The spoken-word albums Yellowbird and Flower Boy arrived in 2009 and 2011, respectively, before the second book, The Madness Vase, emerged in 2012. Throughout this period Gibson maintained a rigorous touring schedule exceeding one hundred shows annually. Sixth album Truce was issued in 2013, and the third poetry collection, Pansy, followed in 2015, again via Write Bloody. After supporting feminist folk icon Ani DiFranco on tour dates in 2017, the label debut Hey Galaxy appeared on Tender Loving Empire in early 2018 and reached number five on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart. Also released early that year by Plume, the poetry volume Take Me with You included illustrations by Sarah J. Gibson.
