Megan Falley, wife of Colorado State Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson, issued a statement today revealing one of the final things Gibson said before dying Monday of ovarian cancer.

Falley did not sugarcoat the fact that Gibson, who used them pronouns, “desperately wanted more time on this planet that they loved so much. This planet of squirrels and romance and basketball and moonlight. But the time they had was significant, prismatic and wild.” 

Gibson, Falley added, “juiced the sun for every holy drop.”

Ryan White’s documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light,” follows Gibson’s journey after her diagnosis, including the creation of a new poem Gibson titled “Death Anthem” (then renamed ”Life Anthem”). In it, Gibson says: “I will never deny how badly I want to live. …  But I did not meet this life until I met its brevity. Did not meet my voice until I knew every word could be my last. I did not know what prayer was until I started praying for what I already have.”

The documentary, which was featured at last year’s Boulder International Film Festival and won the audience favorite award at the Sundance Film Festival, will air this fall on Apple TV+. No premiere date has been announced.

And those final words? “I (bleeping) loved my life.”

Gibson’s conviction, Falley said, stunned a room filled with friends and family.

“If Andrea’s life was a poem – and it was,” Falley said, “Could there be a better last line?”

More reaction

Gibson’s death has reverberated across the country. Sundance issued a statement saying, “Andrea’s story stands as a profound testament to the enduring power of love, art and resilience.” The New York Times published a lengthy obituary hailing Gibson as “among the leading voices in a resurgence of spoken-word poetry in the mid-2000s, centered in cafes and on college campuses around the country.”

A recent Chicago news video of Gibson saying, “Dying is the opposite of leaving,” has been viewed more than 53,000 times. Thousands of comments posted to social media have shared how Gibson’s poetry has comforted them as part of their journey of loss or identity.

Falley made it clear there is more Gibson writing to be released, including a memoir.

Ready for Leguizamo?

The next episode of MSNBC’s six-part series “Leguizamo Does America” premieres Sunday (July 20) with an episode set in Denver. The Emmy and Tony award-winning actor, whose movie canon includes “Carlito’s Way,” “Moulin Rouge!” “Romeo + Juliet,” and “John Wick,” crossed the country from Philadelphia to Phoenix to explore how Latino communities are shaping America through their history, food and culture. It should be fun to see what Leguizamo, with his singular energy and style, gets up into on his road trip through Denver.

X and Los Lobos in Denver

The headline over my seminal, epic, bucket-list interview with John Doe of X hangs over me like a guillotine: “Legendary punk band reunites for one last tour.” The publication date: Aug. 24, 2001. 

That’s when I learned (again) never to trust anyone in the music industry who uses the words “last,” “final” or “never again. But thank God no one ever means what they say, because if they did, I would not be here to tell you that, 24 years later, the perfectly paired L.A. icons X and Los Lobos are teaming up for their first national tour together to celebrate, they say with a totally straight face, “99 Years of Rock ‘n Roll.”

(I joke because X did pretty much disband in 1985. “The lifespan of the band was in effect the lifespan of their love,” I wrote of John Doe and Exene Cervenka. But they have been playing (amazing, life-changing) reunion shows ever since.)

And get this: After all these years, somehow, both bands have all their original members still rocking together after more than six decades.

The tour launches Saturday night (July 19) right here in Denver at the Paramount Theater.

Now, if you somehow don’t know X, well, I am here to help. This is how I giddily described the band back in 2001 for what we were assured would be the band’s last Denver appearance:

“Out of the love shared by Doe and Cervenka came the rock band X, and with it Los Angeles’ spectacular enlistment in the international punk music revolution. X brought a fresh, intelligent voice of angst and rebellion to a burgeoning scene defined to that point by the party-time anger of the Ramones in New York and the anarchy of the Sex Pistols in Britain.”

Just the thought of their return to Denver on Saturday makes me feel like I’m, I dunno … a kid of 45 again.

Tickets start at $49 at ticketmaster.com.

All aboard for RTD storytime

Denver’s RTD bus service is hosting its first-ever “Storytime on the Train” event July 23. From 10-11 a.m., RTD staff will read train-themed children’s books aboard the L light-rail line. Check in at the 30th and Downing Station by 9:50 a.m. The train will loop back where it began an hour later. Children ride for free. Adults must purchase a fare.

Rise Comedy Festival

The RISE Comedy Festival, something of a precursor to the High Plains Comedy Fest in September, is a two-week celebration of diverse, boundary-pushing comedy featuring more than 150 stand-up, improv and sketch comedians. RISE (formerly Voodoo Comedy Playhouse, just down the block from Coors Field) will be unveiling “The Hideaway,” a new speakeasy-style theater during the fest, running July 25-Aug. 2. The winning stand-up picks up $500.

History Colorado’s ‘1776’

Ever heard of Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante? They were both Franciscan priests who in 1776 led one of the earliest European expeditions through present-day Colorado. History Colorado’s “Expedition 1776: The Journey of Domínguez & Escalante” exhibit opens Friday. Tickets at historycolorado.org

And finally, about the NEA …

Not going to beat a dead horse about this, but the dreaded day we knew was coming came Monday. That’s when the House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee recommended 35% cuts to both the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities budgets, and a 17.2% reduction in the Kennedy Center’s budget. If passed, this would be the NEA’s lowest allocation since 2007, without accounting for inflation. The draft bill proposes $135 million each for the NEA and NEH – a $72 million cut from current funding levels. This is not yet the law, but it does mark a significant moment in the budget process.