Berklee Professor Regie Gibson Named First Poet Laureate of Massachusetts

Regie Gibson, an assistant professor in the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department at Berklee College of Music, was named the inaugural Poet Laureate for the state of Massachusetts by Governor Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. Gibson was selected among a field of over 100 applicants for the role. Following a review of applications, the nominating committee submitted recommendations and concluded that he would become the defining voice of poetry and creative expression across Massachusetts.

“Regie Gibson is a talented poet with a proven commitment to community engagement and a deep appreciation for the history, beauty, and resilience of our state and our people. He sees his poetry as a means of bringing people together, finding common ground, and building stronger communities,” said Healey, ahead of a presentation for Gibson at the Peabody Essex Museum. “We congratulate him on his many accomplishments and for being named Massachusetts’s first-ever poet laureate, and we extend our deep thanks to Michael Bobbitt, the Mass Cultural Council, and the advisory Poet Laureate Nominating Committee for their work to make this special new tradition possible.”

In addition to his work at Berklee, where he teaches courses on performance and spoken word poetry, Gibson is the co-artistic director of pedagogy at Arts for Social Cohesion and teaches poetry at Clark University in Worcester.

“Through engaging with poetry, we get a clearer sense of our own thoughts, feelings, and inner music, but also our inspirations, aspirations, and desperations—not only ours, but of many who have walked before us, and many who will walk after,” said Gibson. “Poetry, for me, is a sustained dialogue with ourselves across time. At a time when arts funding is being curtailed and so many civic programs are on the chopping block, I am so gratified to be in a state that believes poetry is not only a worthy endeavor but a civic good. As Massachusetts’s inaugural poet laureate, I see it as my charge to do all I can to make sure there will be another and another and another.”