On May 30, 2025, Governor Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll announced Regie Gibson as Massachusetts first-ever Inaugural Poet Laureate at the 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival.
Regie Gibson serves as the Co-Artistic Director of Pedagogy at the Arts for Social Cohesion, an Assistant professor at Berklee College of Music, and an Instructor at Clark University. He teaches courses on performance and spoken word poetry as well as introduction to poetry classes. Along with his work he is an accomplished poet focusing on complex historical and social issues. Regie Gibson has lectured and performed in places around the world, representing the United States in Italy where he received both the Absolute Poetry Award and the Europa en Versi Award. Among his many awards and prestige he has remained committed to his community and students. He uses his poetry and artistic voice with intention and works to create a common ground.
In her press release on announcing the new Poet Lauterate, Governor Maura Healey calls Mr. Gibson, “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.”
As Poet Laureate Mr.Gibson will focus on encouraging appreciation of poetry and creative expression by hosting events around Massachusetts, attending readings and cultural events, composing poetry for ceremonial occasions, and working with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. With the Department of Education he plans to create outreach programs for schools focused on the celebration and advancement of poetry.
As seen on the Berklee College of Music website, when speaking on his teaching he says, “Of course I want my students to be better poets. However, what is most important is that they learn to think more poetically—that is, that they find the connections between things, situations, and experiences previously thought of as disparate. Also, I want them to be able to be confident to better connect with an audience with nothing but a microphone and a mission.”
“What a joy to have this historic announcement at the start of the 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival! The Governor’s establishment of a State Poet Laureate highlights our distinguished literary tradition in the Commonwealth, from America’s very first poet Anne Bradstreet to countless contemporary luminaries like our new laureate. It also reaffirms our state’s position as a center of this great art for our nation, now and into the future,” says Massachusetts 2025 Poetry Festival director M.P. Carver, as seen in the press release..
While accepting his position Regie Gibson emphasized the importance of the arts, “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 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!”