Thu, Aug 17, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Bushel Collective, 106 Main Street, Delhi NY
Diane Ciccone will discuss her research into the life of her great great grandfather Toliver Holmes who was born into slavery, walked to his own freedom, enlisted as a soldier in the Civil War, and became a husband, farmer, and a respected member of his community. Ciccone’s research has come to life in her cousin Kyle Bass’s play Toliver & Wakeman, currently being performed at the Franklin Stage Company through August 20. A Q&A will follow the talk. Afterwards, attendees are welcome to take a brief walk up to Woodland Cemetery to visit the gravesite of Toliver Holmes.
Co-sponsored with the Bushel Collective, this program is free and open to the public.
Diane Ciccone, trained as a lawyer and is currently serving as an Administrative Law Judge has always found history, specifically African American history important and inspiring. Diane is passionate and believes it is important to lift up the voices and stories of people that have been forgotten for their contributions to the tapestry of this nation. This passion has led her to find and document those stories including her own ancestors.
She wrote, directed, and produced a documentary film on the lives of the people in one of the first planned integrated neighborhoods in the 1950’s in New Jersey, “Act of Faith: Planned Integrated Housing in New Jersey”.
Her first published nonfiction book “Into the Light: The early African American Men of Colgate University Who Transformed a Nation, 1840-1930” was written to highlight the forgotten alums in time for her alma mater, Colgate University’s bicentennial in 2019.
She is currently writing a book on her earliest known ancestor Lill who was enslaved in Connecticut during the Revolutionary War.