Andrea Gibson

Two Novembers ago, my best friend showed me this video:


"Birthday", by Andrea Gibson

It is not an teenager's overemotional exaggeration to say that it changed me.

Her name is Andrea Gibson. She is a spoken-word artist. She writes about everything from love to earmuffs to war to God to gender to class issues, and it is all amazing. She is powerful and funny and touching and awe-inspiring. Her words give you hope, some sort of belief that things might be okay, but they also hold the truth of the world's brutality up to your face. Her words are always in my head. She is eminently quotable. I'm not sure how much of my brain space she occupies, but it is a sizable amount. For every situation, there is a relevant line, and I've listened to it so many times that I can hear her voice. My writing has changed--for the better, but also for the more emotional, for the longer sentences, for the curious and curiouser. I can't help thinking in poetry--thinking in romantic, thinking in metaphors, thinking in references and adaptations. Sometimes, when I'm bored, I see how many poems I can recite by heart. There's a lot of them. I have her two books ("Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns" and "The Madness Vase"), as well as her CDs "Yellowbird" and "Flower Boy". She signed both the books and "Flower Boy". I have seen her in person twice, at the University of Mary Washington and the University of Virginia. It was all of the happy words I know.

Part of the reason she has such a grasp on my mind and heart is that she was the first spoken-word artist I ever heard. (Spoken-word is also called slam poetry, but I prefer spoken-word, because it's less violent and less intimidating). Spoken-word has basically revolutionized the way I think about writing. Another spoken-word artist that I like, Sarah Kay, talks about everything and anything being poetry--that people are often stunted by the idea that nothing that they experience or think or feel could be "poetry", Poetry, the Great and Almighty Expression of Deep and Important Things. In reality, poetry is what we experience and think and feel, and you are a poet if you express that. Spoken-word is a lot about that. It can be poetic or blunt, funny or powerful, about love or war or earmuffs or anything in the world, and, oftentimes, the best part of spoken-word is that it is all of those things at once, and it helps you see all of those things in everything. And, if you just want to write about laundry, or hugs, or cupcake-making, that's okay too. That is okay, too. It is okay to be who you are and think what you think and feel what you feel and write what you write. You're okay, too.

I have never tried doing it for myself. (Well, okay, that's not entirely true. I talk constantly when I'm alone--some people refer to it as talking to yourself, but that's not strictly true, as I'm not actually talking to myself. I'm talking out into the open. Some people refer to that as talking just to hear yourself talk, and that may be strictly true, but it's not as narcissistic as it sounds--it helps me organize my thoughts. Anyway, when I talk to the open, I often speak in rhythms and rhymes reminiscent of Andrea Gibson poems, and I vent emotionally and try to make it semi-poetic. If I come up with anything I like, I write it down). However, I'm planning on going to a meeting of Blair's Slam Poetry Club next Thursday, just to see what it's like, experience the people, and maybe--maybe--get inspired. Wish me luck.

Some Poems to Check Out (About One/Millionth of Zoe's Favorites)
Birthday
The Nutritionist
Jellyfish
I Sing the Body Electric, Especially When My Power's Gone Out
How It Ends
Photograph
Maybe I Need You
I Do
Crab-apple Pirates
The Vinegar Club
A Letter to the Playground Bully, from Andrea, Age 8 1/2
Pole Dancer
Asking Too Much

--Okay, I'll stop there. My actual list of favorites is way too long.

www.andreagibson.org
http://andrewgibby.tumblr.com

(Ooh. A short note on Andrea Gibson's tumblr page--she posts not poems, but these absolutely brilliant and incredible and wonderful paragraphs about the smallest things that mean so much. Please please please check them and her out).