Henry Reese
Co-Founder, City of Asylum
2022
Henry Reese is a co-founder of City of Asylum, which provides sanctuary in Pittsburgh to writers exiled under threat of persecution. He 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 graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and did graduate work at SUNY Buffalo in English literature and cognitive linguistics.
At the Summit
This cannot be thought of as a conference or a summit. The stakes are simply too high and the data/conversation and methods to drive action more valuable/motivating than any gathering I have attended. I took more than 100 pages of notes and have shared them with my CBS News leadership team, anchors, producers, and correspondents. Nothing about this gathering was easy. The agony around this topic is real. But no one curious about it could ask for a more devoted, rational, or unflinching look into this dark but decipherable world.
