Timothy David Rey

Bio:
Timothy David Rey-is a Chicago-based poet, playwright, performer and educator. He attended Indiana University Bloomington, on The Most Outstanding Author scholarship, from IU’s Department of English where he studied poetry under, Pulitzer Prize winner, Yusef Komunyakaa. He is an inaugural 2021-22 ‘Survive and Thrive’ Changing Worlds/ Arts Work Fund Grant Awardee, a 2015 Semi-Finalist for the Guild Literary Complex’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award, and one of the winners of Project Exploration (The Poetry Center of Chicago). He is the co-founder of the LBGT+ Solo Performance Showcase, Solo Homo (2002-2011). Timothy’s plays and performances pieces have been seen and heard at venues throughout Chicago as well as out of state and in Panama (translated into Spanish). He has been interviewed on WBEZ regarding his work. Timothy has also been involved in cultural and community-based arts programming, and arts education project management. In addition, he has taught poetry and performance for Columbia College School of Fine & Performing Arts Community Engagement Program, the Poetry Foundation Summer Teacher’s Institute. Writer’s Theater, and is currently a Poet In-Residence for The Chicago Poetry Center on whose Board he also sits. He is the Chicagoland Regional Coordinator for Poetry Out Loud! (Poetry Foundation/ National Endowment for The Arts) Timothy’s writing has been read at the Poetry Foundation as part of the Open Door Series 2020 and has appeared in magazines and journals including: Black Child, New City, Sixty Inches From Center, After Hours: The Chicago Journal of Writing & Art , Black Horse Review as well as Musings During A time of Pandemic: A World Anthology of Poems on COVID-19 and I Can’t Breath: A Poetic Anthology of Social Justice, (both edited by Christopher Okemwa, Ph.D., 2021). He is one of the co-authors of “Reimagined Arts Integrated Structures and Spaces Through Pandemic Learning” with Erin Preston, et al. in the book: Cases on Practical Applications for Remote, Hybrid, and Hyflex Teaching, IGI Global Publications (2021). ‘His book of poetry and performance, Little Victories, was published in 2012 by NewTown Writers Press. Timothy has performed at, The Chicago History Museum, the Poetry Foundation, Steppenwolf Theater (Lookout Series), New York Shakespeare Exchange’s, ‘Voices’ project, New York City’s International Fringe Festival and The Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts.

Artist Statement:
Timothy David Rey is a poet, playmaker, and performer. Through the use of intertextual references, nostalgia and found images, he creates both autobiographical solo performance pieces, creative non-fiction monologues and fully cast plays, that explore “possibilities” or the “what ifs” in life. His works delve into worlds both real and imagined, that center around race, sex, queerness, blackness and class.