The Graterford Archive film screening and panel discussion

Join us Mural Arts Philadelphia and The Graterford Archive for a screening of “The Sweet Science” and a panel discussion about the history of the boxing program at State Correctional Institution (SCI) Graterford. Community members will have the chance to hear from several boxers who traveled across the country fighting professional and incarcerated opponents during the program’s run, from the 1970s to the late 1990s. Acclaimed visual artist James “Yaya” Hough will also showcase portraits of Graterford boxers, many of whom were his mentors.

The Graterford Archive documents these stories and more as a crucial part of Pennsylvania’s history: Under the direction of William Robinson, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections created one of the nation’s first and longest-lasting boxing programs in the United States prison system. Notable fighters like Bernard Hopkins emerged from Graterford, located at the site of present-day SCI Phoenix. 

For more on the boxing program’s legacy, visit Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, featuring a recreation of a 2005 Hopkins tribute mural designed by Eric Okdeh and painted by Mural Artists of SCI Phoenix.