In This Place... and If She Stood

Painted Bride Art Center commissioned three-time Obie Award-winning writer, director, and actor Ain Gordon to unearth a "forgotten" story from Philadelphia's past as source material for a new play. In collaboration with Philadelphia-based filmmaker Nadine Patterson, Gordon conducted an 18-month research process visiting archives, holding interviews, and traversing the city. Gordon determined that the play would center on the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, a multi-racial collective established in the 1830s to abolish slavery.

Gordon's play, If She Stood, depicted unsung warriors Sarah Mapps Douglass, Sarah Grimké, Angelina Weld Grimké, Sarah Pugh, and members of the Female Anti-Slavery Society who challenged convention and complacency. These women faced emotional and physical attacks including the burning of the Society's building by an anti-abolition mob further incensed at the audacity of women voicing their opinions in public. For the production, the Painted Bride was transformed into a 19th-century Quaker meeting house. As a dialogic companion to the performance, Patterson curated an exhibit of artworks installed in the lobby of the Bride. Ancillary events included an educator workshop, a genealogy workshop, and a panel discussion titled "The Omission of Women."

To introduce audiences to Gordon's work, this grant also funded the presentation of his earlier play In This Place..., set in Kentucky and based on research into the lives of Daphney and Samuel Oldham, the first free African-Americans to build their own house in Lexington.