Gibson Fay-LeBlanc

 

Portland's current poet laureate, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc is a graduate of Columbia University with a M.F.A. He is the author of the award-winning book Death of a Ventriloquist and has his poems published in major journals. Formerly the Poetry Editor for Maine Magazine and the Executive Director of the Telling Room, he is currently President of the Board of Directors of Maine Writers and Publishers.

To access his website: http://gibsonfayleblanc.com/poetry/

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Here's an account of Gibson's activities as poet laureate from June of 

2015 through June of 2016

 

Poetry Workshops & Residencies in Local Schools:

 

• Wells Junior High School Residency (in collaboration with the Telling Room)

• Yarmouth High School Creative Writing Day

• Poetry and Prints Residency at Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School & St. John’s Catholic School, Brunswick (in collaboration with Arts Are Elementary)

• Falmouth High School Poetry Workshop

• Poetry Out Loud Workshops (in collaboration with the Maine Arts Commission)

• Ocean Avenue Elementary School Poetry Workshops, Portland

• Dolphin Press Magazine Workshop, Ocean Avenue Elementary School

• Greely Middle School Workshops (in collaboration with the Telling Room)

• Cape Elizabeth Middle School Poetry Workshops

 

Readings & Events:

 

• Copper Beach Tree Lighting, Portland Museum of Art (in collaboration with the Telling Room), December 2016

• Writers’ Zone, Time Warner Cable Community Access, January 2016

• PMA 360 Reading, Portland Museum of Art, March 2016

• Take Heart Anthology Reading, Portland Public Library, April 2016

• The Next Generation Reading, Portland Public Library (in collaboration with the Telling Room and teachers and students from Deering, Falmouth, and Yarmouth High Schools.)  April 2016

 

 

To Come in 2016-17 and 2017-18:

In addition to a similar slate of school workshops and community readings, Gibson will unveil two new projects in the fall of 2016:

 

1. Deep Water: Poems from Maine

In partnership with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, Gibson is launching Deep Water, a new weekly poetry column for the Maine Sunday Telegram that will begin appearing in September. Each edition of Deep Water will include a brief introduction contextualizing the week’s poem.

 

2. Written Word, Spoken Word, and Hip-Hop

In collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance and with support from the Maine Arts Commission and the Maine Humanities Council, Gibson and former Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair will unveil a series of web-based videos to help high school students write poems for the page, for performance, and for hip-hop.