Pew Center for Arts and Heritage

Get our monthly newsletter in your inbox for the latest on cultural events, ideas, conversations, and grantmaking news in Philadelphia and beyond.

Main page contents

A Fierce Kind of Love: Connecting Communities through Story and Dialogue

Institute on Disabilities at Temple University
A Fierce Kind of Love. Photo by Jacques-Jean Tiziou.
A Fierce Kind of Love. Photo by Jacques-Jean Tiziou.
A Fierce Kind of Love. Photo by Jacques-Jean Tiziou.
A Fierce Kind of Love. Photo by Jacques-Jean Tiziou.
Installation view of Here: Stories from Selinsgrove Center and KenCrest Services. Photo by JJ Tiziou.
Installation view of Here: Stories from Selinsgrove Center and KenCrest Services. Photo by JJ Tiziou.
David Bradley and Suli Holum, playwrights for A Fierce Kind of Love, at a rehearsal. Courtesy of Temple University's Institute on Disabilities.
David Bradley and Suli Holum, playwrights for A Fierce Kind of Love, at a rehearsal. Courtesy of Temple University's Institute on Disabilities.

Advocates in Pennsylvania played a significant role in the fight for disability rights, but these stories are largely unknown. A Fierce Kind of Love, a new play by theater artists Suli Holum and David Bradley, will recount these untold stories, revealing how past activism has informed present-day issues. The play is part of a series of public programs that will address questions of equity and inclusion, as well as issues around institutionalization, in order to generate public discussion beyond the disability community. The project as a whole is based on oral histories and interviews with advocates and self-advocates from the disability rights movement. The play's cast will include people with intellectual disabilities. The Institute on Disabilities received a 2012 Discovery Grant for the planning of A Fierce Kind of Love.


*Additional unrestricted funds are added to each grant for general operating support.*
uestions of ractice
Back to Back Theatre's Food Court with the Necks, presented at FringeArts' 2012 festival. Photo by Jeff Busby.
Interview

Suli Holum and David Bradley on Food Court and Disability in Performance

Read More
Jérôme Bel's The Show Must Go On (2001). Photo by Mussacchio Laniello.
Interview

Theatricality and Amateurism with Catherine Wood and Jérôme Bel: Part II

Read More
Shantell and Kathy. Photo by JJ Tiziou, courtesy of the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University.
Interview

"Sometimes We Need to Get Uncomfortable:" On Working with Artists in the Disabilities Community

Read More
Teresa Jaynes, Gift #4, 2016, silkscreen prints and cherry. Photo by Jennifer McTague.
Interview

On Telling the Stories of the Disabilities Community: Artist Teresa Jaynes, Playwright Suli Holum, Writer Terry Galloway, and Art-Reach's John Orr

Read More
Recipient
Institute on Disabilities at Temple University

Institute on Disabilities at Temple University

The Institute on Disabilities at Temple University was established in 1974 and works with people with disabilities and families across Pennsylvania to change systems, share knowledge, and promote self-determination. The Institute explores the potential of an arts-based approach to engage the larger community in a dialogue around disability issues and the history of the disability rights movement through its Media Arts & Culture unit. 

More info
Explore Connections
Nels Cline in performance at Royce Hall, Los Angeles. Photo by Phinn Sriployrung.

Guitarist Nels Cline on Musical Lineage
Video Tradition & Translation
Walking with Trane, Urban Bush Women. Photo by Gennia Cui.
Questions of Practice: Choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar on Art and Social Justice
Video Social & Community-Based Practices
Sonia Sanchez. Photo by Erika Vonie.
Celebrating Poet Sonia Sanchez, plus Pew Fellows Earn Guggenheim Fellowships, Peabody Award, and More
Sonya Clark, The Descendants of Monticello, 2024, part of Declaration House, Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, PA. Photo by Steve Weinik, courtesy of Monument Lab.
Fall Arts Preview: From the Personal to the Historic, 17 Events to Add to Your Calendar
Pew Fellows Candice Iloh and Armando Veve. Photos by Neal Santos.

Fellow to Fellow: Candice Iloh and Armando Veve Find Inspiration in Each Other’s Mediums
Interview Cross-Disciplinary Practices
Enrique Bostelmann, Portrait of Cora Flores, 1980, part of Mirages series.

Projects in Process: Discoveries in the Archives with Berman Museum and Japan America Society
Essay Legacy & Archives
Side-by-side portraits of Sumi Tonooka and Phillip B. Williams.

Fellow to Fellow: Sumi Tonooka and Phillip B. Williams on Expanding Their Artistic Identities 
Interview Practice & Process
Sinta Penyami Storms, 2022 Philadelphia's Cultural Treasures fellow.
Four Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures Fellows on Care and Community Impact
EgoPo Classic Theater, rehearsal for Ramayana with Papermoon Puppet Theatre and Kalanari Theatre Movement, 2023, Java, Indonesia. Photo courtesy of EgoPo. 

Projects in Process: Wilma Theater and EgoPo on Creative Collaborations
Essay Co-Authorship & Collaboration