Gabriel Leon-Reyes is a first generation Chilean-Canadian born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1997. He is an active artist, writer, and community organizer within Hamilton. His earliest recognition of artistry and community engagement occurred during his late teen years at Cardinal Newman Catholic Secondary, where he first began to showcase his work and cultivate his experience in participating in the discourse. In 2015 he won the writing award “Lyrical Terrorist” at the 2015 ‘Louder Than a Bomb Canada’ youth poetry festival, an award given solely to noteworthy youth poets, while representing Cardinal Newman Catholic Secondary.
Moreover, Gabriel later in 2016 worked as a freelance teaching artist with the Hamilton Youth Poets, a leading Hamilton arts-organization , who until 2018 annually hosted the ‘Louder Than a Bomb Canada’ festival. HYP prides itself on innovative artistic engagement to galvanize civically-engaged and culturally literate citizens through creative pedagogy, in collaboration with emerging artists. During his tenure here Gabriel worked on behalf of HYP to engage with different local school communities, to connect them with the programming of the organization, to cultivate this culture of literacy and provide a safe platform . His work with HYP heavily intersected with the two main district school boards of Hamilton, the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board, and the Hamilton Wentworth Catholic District School.
During this same time Gabriel was completing his BA Honours degree of Justice, Political Philosophy, & Law at McMaster University from 2015-2019, a competitive program which only accepts 60 students a year. It was during his studies that Gabriel through hard work developed clear analytical research skills, and an understanding of the framework of political systems, and there intersectionality with other societal systems. With the same importance, he developed the abilities to confidently distill, assess, articulate, and present on complex jargon, policies, and ideas to various audiences.
Furthermore, Gabriel continued his community involvement with a focus on working within his local post-secondary community, as he was the Vice President of Marketing for the McMaster Justice, Political Philosophy, & Law Society in 2017. In this role he successfully rebranded the Society and focused on targeting their audience through specific social media initiatives, which increased engagement between students and the society. Later in 2018. he lead an executive team of 15 members to work independently as an organization, and in collaboration with McMaster’s Department of Philosophy. In order to serve the society’s annual 120 members, reorienting its programming, reinvigorate its mentorship program, and developing production on the innovative “Professor Profiles” initiative.
Currently, Gabriel is enjoying his post graduate studies attending Mohawk College in the Public Relations program. He loves swimming, playing music, reading, writing, music, movies, socializing, learning, nature, and his family and friends.
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