Jeffrey Wray
- (He/Him)
- wrayj@msu.edu
- C638 Wells Hall
- Professor, Timnick Chair in the Humanities
- English
Biography
Jeffrey C. Wray is the Timnick Endowed Chair in the Humanities in the College of Arts & Letters and a Professor in the Department of English, Film Studies Program at Michigan State University. His honors at Michigan State University include the 2019 William J. Beal Distinguished Faculty Award, the 2017 Excellence in Diversity Award, and the 2016 Paul Varg Excellence in Teaching Award. An independent filmmaker and screenwriter, his films include The Evolution of Bert (2014) which premiered at the 2014 50th Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) in the New Directors competition, the Black Perspectives program and was nominated for the Roger Ebert Award at the CIFF. Other notable films include China (2003) funded by and produced for PBS, the short drama Songs for my Right Side (2020), and the concert film BLAT! Pack Live (2016). His most recent film, The Third One, will be completed in 2026. His work has screened in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Zurich and Berlin and China was nationally broadcast on American public television. Grants and honors include a PBS/Independent Television Service (ITVS) American Stories III Production Grant, John Anson Kittredge Foundation Fellowship, Art Serve Michigan Individual Artist Award, Ohio Arts Council Major Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation Film and Video Fellowship nominations and a filmmaker residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University. With his partner, Dr. Tama Hamilton-Wray, he was honored with the 2026 Service to Humanity Alumni Award by their undergraduate institution Hiram College.
Works
Current Projects
Altered Histories Film Series – Blue (2026 & 2027)
A series of political, science fiction, romantic and experimental films that survey the past, present and future through the lens of the altered while incorporating an element of blue.
The Third One – David Bowie is a nervous wreck waiting backstage before his appearance on Soul Train in 1975. A special, colorful elixir from the famous host works wonders.
Stitch – An apprentice seems a failure at mastering the sewing trade, until her demanding, exacting master seamstress Auntie leaves her an unexpected gift.
Gone – During a break in the production of Gone with the Wind, actor Hattie McDaniel engages in deep mediation to clear her mind, but her co-stars keep interrupting her.
Space -In 1962, while an American rocket launches, a black sit-in movement takes hold in a small Tennessee town where a shy, gospel singing girl befriends a mysterious young woman found on the shores of a blue-hued pond.
Select Films
Songs for My Ride Side (2020) 26 minutes Digital Color
Rodger Smith is hurting. The fate of two recently encountered young people and an undocumented West African longing for home are on his mind. But his longtime partner Josephine having left him most troubles him. As he longs for her return a mysterious pain overtakes the right side of his body. Music is the only thing that sooths his wounded soul.
2021 Carr Center Art Gallery
Jazz on Film Series Guest Artist Screening & Panel
2021 Michigan State University Libraries
Encompass Series Black History Month
2020 The Artist Forum Festival of the Moving Image New York
Official Selection New York Premiere Best Film Nominee Best Actor Nominee
2020 Pan African Film Festival Los Angeles
World Premiere Official Selection Competition Screenings Cinemark Theater LA
2020 Capital City Film Festival
Official Selection
2019 Black in the Middle: Inaugural Symposium of the Black Midwest Initiative
Preview Screening Invited Guest Artist
The Evolution of Bert (2014) 75 minutes 16mm black & white
Albert Hightower, a first-generation college student, wrestles with thoughts of his future while dealing with his more challenging present. A surreal, musically-infused, experimental tale of a young black man evolving into who he is.
2016 Blow Up Arthouse Film Festival Chicago
Official Selection
2016 Without Borders Conference – Arcus Center for Social Justice
Guest Artist Screenings
2015 Rwanda International Film Festival
Official Selection Competition Screenings
2015 Athens International Film Festival
Official Selection Competition Screenings
2015 North Park University Chicago
Invited Screening Guest Artist Keynote
2015 Pan African Film Festival Los Angeles
Official Selection Competition Screenings Best First Feature Nominee
2014 East Lansing Film Festival
Official Selection Guest Artist Closing Night Film
2014 50th Anniversary Chicago International Film Festival
World Premiere Official Selection Invited Guest Artist Competition Screenings AMC Cinemas Theaters
Black Perspectives New Director’s Competition Roger Ebert Award Nominee
China (2003) 60 minutes 16mm color
Middle-aged couple, Evelyn & Rudolph, live settled if uninspired lives. Change is on the horizon when Rudolph takes up martial arts and mediation as Evelyn reevaluates their long relationship and herself. Adapted from a Charles Johnson short story.
2007 African American & African Festival University of Nebraska Lincoln
Invited Screening Guest Artist Keynote
2006 Dans Le Cadre Du Film series of Dakar Senegal
Official Screening
2006 Central Michigan University
Invited Screening Guest Artist
2004 Boston First Night Celebration
Official Selection
2004 Western Michigan University
Invited Screening Guest Artist
2003 PBS National Broadcast
2003 Pan African Film Festival Los Angeles
Official Selection Best Short Film Nominee
2003 Athens International Film Festival
Official Selection Guest Artist
2003 Memphis Black Writer’s Conference & Film Festival
Official Selection
2003 Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival
Official Selection
2003 East Lansing Film Festival
Official Selection Guest Artist Best Feature Film
2003 Pocono Mountains Film Festival
Official Selection Best Producer Award
2003 Roxbury Film Festival
Official Selection
2003 Urban World Film Festival
Official Selection Guest Artist Featured Screening
Screenplays
Altered Histories – Blue
A series of short screenplays 5 to 22 minutes in length covering a range of stories about black life. A mix of styles and genres set in the past, present and future. Set for production in 2026 and 2027.
Welcome to Idlewild Feature 90 pages
Vera returns to her childhood home of Idlewild, a historic black resort town in rural Michigan, in search of her father who disappeared there in 1974.
Ella Mae Feature 96 pages
In the summer of 1968 in aftermath of personal tragedy, a young black working-class widow must figure out how to take care of herself and her three boys. She goes to college.
2021 Sedona International Film Festival Screenplay Competition
2021 Vail Film Festival Screenplay Competition
2020 Sundance Film Institute Feature Film Development Track Finalist
Eclipse Feature 80 pages
A death in a small-town Ohio neighborhood and a high-profile bombing at a Mississippi school leads a black teenage boy to discover more about his estranged mysterious father during the turbulent summer of 1964.
2019 Sundance Film Institute Feature Film Development Track Finalist
2019 Sarah Lawrence Summer Writing Workshop
2018 Nicholl Academy Foundation Screenwriting Fellowship Top 20%
The Soul Singer Feature 116 pages
A dynamic, gifted performer, Lorraine Foster first finds success as a child in the 1950s with the Foster Family Gospel Singers. His rise to R&B stardom in the 1960s and 1970s is followed by decline and later revival. Challenging and temperamental, Lorraine dubbed, “the last soul singer,” pushes for what matters most, his music.
2026 Manchester Film Festival Screenplay Competition
2026 Bluecat Screenplay Competition
Essays
The Personal and the Political – Black in the Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest, Belt Publishing, September 2020
How Ella Mae Wray Seized the Opportunities of 1968 – “1968 & the Making of Modern America” The Atlantic, January 2018
Grants/ Fellowships/ Residencies/ Invitations
2025 African Studies Association Moderator, African Storytelling: Identities, Belonging & Cultures
2024 Vermont Studio Center Writing Residency Screenplay/Playwright Jury
2023 Black Midwest Initiative Summer Institute Facilitator, University of Illinois Chicago
2022 Black Midwest Initiative Conference Organizer & Panel Moderator Detroit, Michigan
2019 Sarah Lawrence College Screenwriting Workshop, Bronxville, New York
2019 Vermont Studio Center Screenwriting/Filmmaking Residency, Johnson, Vermont
2018 Ahmadu Bello University/American Embassy, Guest Artist, Zaria, Nigeria
2015 Charles University Prague Summer Screenwriting Workshop
2013 MSU Humanities & Arts Research Program Grant
2011 Wexner Center for the Arts Filmmaker Fellowship Residency
2010 MSU Humanities & Arts Research Program Grant
2007 Rockefeller Foundation Film Fellowship Nominee
2006 Rockefeller Foundation Film Fellowship Nominee
2005 National Black Programming Consortium Production Grant
2005 John Kittredge Foundation Fellowship
2002 Michigan State University IRPG Creative Grant
2000-03 Independent Television Service (ITVS) American Stories III Major Production Grant
2001 Cal Arts Alpert Award Nominee
2000 Rockefeller Foundation Film Fellowship Nominee
2000 ArtServe Michigan Individual Artist Grant
1999 Ohio Arts Council, Artist Project Grant
Organizations
Black Midwest Initiative (BMI)
2018–2026 Executive Council
A collective of scholars, artists, activists, and organizers committed to advocating for the lives of people of African descent throughout the Midwest of the United States.
2024 The 3rd Biennial Black Midwest Symposium:
(Re) Adaptive Use – Reimagining Black Futures in the Midwest, Dayton, Ohio
2022 The 2nd Biennial Black Midwest Symposium: Presence & Protest, Detroit, MI
2019 Black in the Middle: The Inaugural Black Midwest Symposium, Minneapolis, MN
Gallery
College of Arts & Letters News
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