Henry Reese is a co-founder of City of Asylum, which provides sanctuary in Pittsburgh to writers exiled under threat of persecution. He is currently Chair and served as volunteer director from 2004 until 2018, during which time the organization’s mission expanded to includes numerous literary-based programs and place-based economic and community development through the arts. City of Asylum is the world’s largest safe haven in the world for endangered writers and artists. It is also the U.S. hub for the International Cities of Refuge Network and is actively expanding the network of cities in the U.S.
From 1974-2002, Henry was a co-founder and principal in Reese Brothers and Communications & Commerce. He is a humanities graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and did graduate work at SUNY Buffalo in English literature and cognitive linguistics.