Help Rex Fund Their NYC Born Dream!

Hi everyone! 

My name is Julia - and if we’ve met, good to see y’all again! I’m here not to tell my story, but to help fundraise for my friend Rex. 

Rex is a trans, born-and-raised New Yorker looking to tell their stories and preserve the voices, stories and history of New York. They are hoping to attend the Neighborhood Playhouse Conservatory this coming September to hone their craft, & for a second time are hitting financial roadblocks due to access issues. As we know, theater is an industry of immense privilege.

Rex has helped me and so many others immensely on our adventures, and I would love to help on theirs! Queer Joy is an act of resistance.

I’ll let them take it from here! : 

"I'm rex renée (rexylafemme), a trans/queer radical performer, writer, organizer, and spiritual healing practitioner from NYC dedicated to revolutionary creative and spiritual practice for collective liberation. I was recently accepted to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre, a rigorous full-time acting conservatory of 40+ hours a week.

I'm a low-income, working class independent artist and student of nontraditional age. I was born and raised in NYC and my family doesn't come from wealth. As a trans/gender-nonconforming performer and writer, I’ve cobbled together retail, service, and freelance employment to sustain myself financially in our special, yet very expensive city while managing complex ptsd and caregiving for my mother who is disabled.

I was accepted to NPH in 2017 and my main reason for not attending was financial. Because I’ve attended undergraduate and graduate school, I was not (and am not) eligible for federal aid or loans. I also wasn’t approved for private loans. Despite my diligent efforts through grant-writing and fundraising, I was unable to secure adequate funding for the program at that time.

Though I’ve grown significantly through education, experience, and further credentials as a performing artist, published author, and community activist/educator since 2017, I still face similar funding roadblocks.

This is an opportunity I’ve been dreaming of since I was a kid, but has felt elusive and out of reach. Your support would allow me to access professional training to hone my abilities through technical study and learn practical skills for building a career in theater arts, a field that desperately needs radical trans voices and experiences.

If you believe in what I do, your funding will support me in my process to sustain myself financially as a working artist in one of the most expensive, rapidly gentrifying cities-- a city I have always called home. Your support would fund tuition and living expenses so I can focus my energy on my education."