Spoken-word artist Andrea Gibson held the rapt attention of a crowded Hourglass Cafe throughout the duration of her performance there last night.
Gibson, a four-time Denver Grand Slam Champion and 2008 winner of the Women of the World Poetry Slam, said she was happy to perform at Brown. Brown is, she said, "one of those schools that I did not get into, which is really exciting to come to later in my life, and be like, you (expletive) didn't accept me."
"It's good to see you're all friendly, welcoming people," she added.
Gibson's poetry tackled such issues as religion, sexuality and rape. She spoke of sadness and family, love and sex, and sometimes soundtracked her poetry with music from her iPod. Gibson would follow up her sadder poems with more uplifting material, joking that she had to lighten the mood.
"God knows/The holy have done more damage to the world then the devil ever could," performed Gibson, in a satiric poem about virgin birth.
Gibson periodically took poem requests from the audience, and the room erupted into applause when she announced, "Okay, let's do something gay."
Her poems touched on the queer experience ("I knew there were things I should never find beautiful/like death, and girls,") and expressed a fluid and tolerant appreciation for sexuality.
As she began a poem about a woman wanting to visit her partner of fifty years in a hospital, she said, "This is for California."
Gibson, whose Web site describes her as a "queer poet/activist," often infuses her poetry with contemporary political issues.
She said, in between poems, that she felt "queer marriage" should be tied "together in basic human rights," but it seemed hard to justify putting "a lot of energy into that when the earth is collapsing."
The event, hosted by Gender Action, a sub-group of the Queer Alliance, also drew support from the student poetry group WORD!
The captivated audience - full of both QA and WORD! members - followed Gibson's every rhyme, snapping, stomping and clapping in appreciation.
Katie Lamb '10, head chair of Gender Action and QA secretary, called Gibson's poetry "beautiful" and said it meant a lot to her. "I thought she would be a great person to bring to Brown, just sort of what her work encompasses," she said.
"She's not afraid to tackle issues of God, especially from a queer perspective," said Devin Streur '11. "That's really powerful because a lot of the problems in queer America and the queer world today ... are aggravated by religious forces, and so she addresses that."
"Andrea Gibson is a brilliant, brilliant poet," said WORD! Event Coordinator Tasha Pelaez '10.
"She's just got really powerful things to say - it's not just her writing style, it's the message she delivers," she added.
After her hour-long performance, Gibson received a standing ovation.
"I have a poet crush on her now, like more then I did before," Pelaez said. "I'm having trouble putting my brain back together."
