Call for Proposals to Playwrights and Dramaturgs to tell the true story of a man with an intellectual disability who was institutionalized, and the woman who discovered his story.

Background

As part of a team of community archivists researching Pennhurst, Ramona, a middle-aged Black woman, spent the next year trying to listen to what William was telling her, reading between the lines of his file to imagine who he might have been, and who he could have been, if the practice of institutionalization had served him instead of silencing him. Her exploration cracked open her own experience of parenting her teenage neurodiverse son, her advocacy work with other families of children with disabilities, and her decades-long career working in the Philadelphia prison system.

Though living with a terminal cancer diagnosis, Ramona continued her research, sometimes from her hospital bed. She was driven by questions about the reasons for William’s institutionalization, not wholly rooted in disability, and by her belief that William had more to him than what his file contained. She recognized in his file someone trying to communicate and not being understood. Disturbed by numerous instances of William reporting abuse but not being believed, she was determined to be, decades after his death, the witness he had needed in life. Ramona learned that, even in death, William remained unseen; his unclaimed body was transferred from Pennhurst to Thomas Jefferson University hospital where he remained as a “teaching cadaver” for five years. In 1960, his remains were interred in a co-mingled grave at a cemetery in West Philadelphia, marked only by a number. Working with an oral historian, Ramona found and visited William’s gravesite. She prayed for him, she lit a candle, she left flowers, and she told William that his life was not in vain, that his name was known, and that she was here to tell his story.

A few months later, Ramona passed away.

Our Values

The Institute on Disabilities learns from and works with people with disabilities and their families in diverse communities across Pennsylvania to create and share knowledge, change systems and society, and promote self-determined lives so that disability is recognized as a natural part of the human experience.

Its Media Arts and Culture (MAC) programming is guided by the belief that all people should be able to share in the power, beauty and creation of art. MAC works collaboratively with Temple University and our community to develop original, innovative, and accessible arts programming. We are particularly interested in supporting emerging artists and technicians with disabilities, including people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Our work includes oral history, archival preservation, documentary, exhibition, and public performance.