Falley Honors Andrea Gibson at Portland Show
A sold-out State Theatre event will pair a screening of Gibson's final Denver performance with a live five-piece orchestra.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Secondary Education
Falley will hold a sold-out event honoring poet Andrea Gibson at the State Theatre in Portland on November 12, 2026. The program includes a screening of Gibson's final 2024 Denver performance, accompanied live by the Goosebumps Orchestra.
Why it matters
Gibson, who died on July 14, 2025, from ovarian cancer, is remembered through a live tribute that combines their final recorded performance with new musical accompaniment. The event gives Portland audiences a shared public space to mark Gibson's work and legacy.
The event is sold out, and the screening is accompanied live by a five-piece Goosebumps Orchestra playing a score by Blake Neely. Gibson received an ovarian cancer diagnosis four years before dying in July 2025, and the extraction does not indicate whether further showings are planned.
The players
Andrea Gibson
Gibson was a poet and performer born in Calais who graduated from St. Joseph's College in Standish in 1997 with an English degree.
Falley
Falley is the Longmont, Colorado-based organizer who shared a home with Gibson and is staging the event.
Chris Pureka
Pureka is a musician performing at the event.
The details
Chris Pureka will perform, and Falley will read Gibson's poem "Love Letter From the Afterlife" to close the evening. The program is titled "Andrea Gibson's 'Love Letter From the Afterlife,'" and draws on Gibson's 2024 Paramount Theater performance in Denver.
Timeline
July 14, 2025: Andrea Gibson dies from ovarian cancer.
2024: Gibson gives the final performance screened at the event, at the Paramount Theater in Denver.
November 12, 2026: Sold-out event held at the State Theatre in Portland.
Legacy Programming
The event follows the pattern of memorial screenings that pair a performer's final recorded show with live scoring, here using Blake Neely's score, which he also wrote for the 2025 Oscar-nominated documentary "Come See Me in the Good Light." Gibson's final Paramount Theater performance in Denver in 2024 serves as the source recording for the tribute.
Tickets for the November 12, 2026 show at the State Theatre are sold out, so attendance is limited to those who already hold seats. The screening and live orchestra will not be available outside this event based on the information provided.
The takeaway
Gibson's work is being kept alive through shared live experiences that combine archived performance with new music. Readers interested in the poet can seek out the recorded performance and the poem "Love Letter From the Afterlife" as a starting point.
Further reading
Explore more secondary education coverage for context on school-based arts and literary programs.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Portland Press Herald.
