John Richard Dildine

John Richard Dildine

FALLS VILLAGE — John was born on Dec. 15, 1934, in Evanston, Illinois, and died on June 3, 2024. John graduated from high school in Silver Spring, Maryland, with a focus on audio, radio and music. He curated and hosted a popular Folk Music radio program recorded at WAMC and broadcast by NPR. He was the first president of The Folklore Society of Greater Washington in the early 1960s. He provided audio support during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.

John, his wife, Ginny, and their three children (son Wesley, daughters Debbie and Connie) performed as The Dildine Family Folk Songs and Marionettes for ten years at folk festivals, schools and folk venues.

John was a self-employed sound recording engineer for documentary films and television. He was also a voice recording artist. The John Dildine and Ginny Dildine Papers now reside at the Library of Congress-Folklife Division.

John loved travel, painting, pottery, and family. He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Ginny, his son, Wesley (Chelsea), daughters Debbie (Joel) and Connie (Lars); and two granddaughters, Leah (Matt) and Shannon, and four great grandchildren.

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Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

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In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

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Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

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The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

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In the company of artists

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Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

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