Regie Gibson, an assistant professor at Berklee College of Music and an instructor at Clark University, has been selected as Massachusetts’ first Poet Laureate.
Governor Maura Healey made the announcement during a ceremony at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem Friday.
“[Gibson] will work in our schools, our public spaces [and] our community spaces to amplify poetry and creative expression in Massachusetts,” she said. “And he will help us ensure poetry continues to thrive as an important piece of our cultural landscape.”
Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, also at the event, described poetry as “the core of all great art.”
“It’s a calling giving voice to struggle that comes out through words and celebrates courage and creativity, and recognizes injustice and oppression,” said Driscoll. “[It] inspires people to take action and to tell their stories, and encourages our own self reflection.”
Gibson is now tasked with facilitating that inspiration throughout the commonwealth, organizing readings and public cultural events.
At the ceremony, Gibson appeared to embrace this artistic mission with a passionate solemnity, opting to be sworn in on a dictionary he received from his uncle when he was seven years old. In his remarks, he credited that very dictionary with opening his mind to the power, purpose and meaning of words.
“It took me three years to read this book from front to back, and it was there that I discovered that words are gateways and palaces of imaginations that can lead us from where we find ourselves to where we can go,” he said. “Words... have usage and definition. How we live them gives them meaning.”
Gibson concluded the ceremony with a reading from his poem, “Massachusetts: A Song of Itself, Revolution, and Resilience,” which he plans to share in its entirety this weekend at The WBUR Festival.
Friday’s announcement coincided with the Massachusetts Poetry Festival at the Peabody Essex Museum, where an estimated 150 poets are set to give readings, open mic performances and workshops throughout the weekend.
