Inaugural Mass. State Poet Laureate Regie Gibson Inspires and Enthralls Westwood High Community at Black History Month Event

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ first ever Poet Laureate Regie Gibson captivated and engaged students and faculty, a crowd that filled the library yesterday at Westwood High School’s Black History Month event. Introduced by current Westwood Youth Poet Laureate Charles Goodman, Class of 2026, Gibson quickly engaged students in a call and response to his first poem, “ The What?, “ his imagined story of the birth of poetry.  

Working largely from memory and demonstrating his spoken word skills and slam poetry background, he also recited his poemsn “This is for Lucy Stone,” about the 19th century suffragette and abolitionist strategist, “ Black Fathers ” and his inaugural poem, “Song of Massachusetts.” In the course of his presentation, he name-checked icons from politics,  literature and pop culture, including the Bible, Shakespeare, Emerson, Thoreau, MLK, Lucy Stone, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson—a list by no means exhaustive.

Following his morning performance, Gibson led  a poetry workshop with a small group of student writers, including Goodman; Youth Poet Laureate emerita Elizabeth Lowney (2024–2025), also Class of 2026; and students from English teacher Kieran Moriarty’s Creative Writing class. In that smaller setting, students explored craft, voice, and the personal power of poetry under Gibson’s guidance.

Westwood High School librarian/teacher Theresa Fisher produced this event in collaboration with Westwood Poet Laureate emerita Lynne Viti (2022-2024) and the support of Principal Amy Davenport. Funding for the Black History Month program was provided by Westwood High School and through a grant secured by Viti from the Westwood and Massachusetts Cultural Councils.

For one morning, the school library became more than a reading ND study space — Regie Gibson transformed it into a stage, a workshop, and a reminder that poetry is not only written on the page, but should be spoken, shared, and lived.