Diane Ciccone of West Windsor has now branched out into a completely new field — filmmaking — melding her interests in photography and African American history. She is already a lawyer with a general practice in New York City, a board member of the West Windsor Arts Council, author of “Heal Thyself Cookbook,” a holistic cookbook; and a member of the board of the West Windsor Farmers Market. She has also served on the town’s planning board and is a member of town council.
Her first film, “Glen Acres: A Story in Black and White,” will be screened at the West Windsor Arts Center on Sunday, February 27, at 3 p.m. It is the first public showing of the documentary written and directed by Ciccone. Although the program is free, there is a suggested donation of $5. Refreshments and discussion follow the screening.
When Glen Acres, the integrated neighborhood on the Princeton side of Alexander Road, between Canal Pointe and the D&R Canal, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008, several residents asked Ciccone to videotape interviews with some of the residents and former residents. The event was a reunion for the “kids,” including many who were now in their 50s. Ciccone interviewed many of the original residents of Glen Acres and MapleCrest, its sister neighborhood in Princeton. “I used three different cameras but I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” she says. “It was a special project for me but I wish that this had not been my first film.”
In a letter to the editor Ciccone wrote to the West Windsor-Plainsboro News on July 9, 2004, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Brown v. board of Education, she says that the study of Glen Acres “is crucial to an understanding of how to extend the Brown holding into the next generation.” The first families, both black and white, who lived there, she says, believed “that living next to a person of another race was not the issue; the issue was affordable housing, quality schools, safe neighborhoods, and the protection of their investments. Ultimately, it did not matter that it was a ‘planned’ neighbhood. What mattered is that families bonded, respected, and enjoyed each other. Life-long relationships endured racial differences. There are lessons to be learned from those who followed Brown and those who did not. The West Windsor experience contains many of those lessons.”
Ciccone was born and raised in central New York not far from Syracuse. “I lived in predominantly white neighborhoods,” she says. “My family integrated it.” Her parents divorced when she was young and she lived in Utica with her mother, an antiques dealer. Her father, who lived nearby, was the director of parks and recreation. When he retired he became the women’s assistant softball coach at Colgate.
Ciccone graduated from Colgate University and entered Hofstra law program where the class was very diverse with 50 percent women. She has practiced law in New York City for many years.
Ciccone and her family moved to West Windsor in 2000. Her husband, Daryl McMillan, is an IT executive at Munich Reinsurance America based in Plainsboro. Their daughter, Kali, graduated from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, Class of 2006, and Colgate University, with a degree in art history. Since graduating last June, she spent time backpacking through Europe. A professional photographer, she currently has an exhibit in Morristown.
“I found footage of what the rest of the country was like and it helped to tell the story in context of what was going on in the rest of the country,” says Ciccone. The film explores the development of the historic neighborhood where residents committed to a vision of racial equality and harmony at a time when few thought that an integrated neighborhood was desirable or possible. The 1950s was a time before real-life Archie Bunkers were caricatured and when Martin Luther King had not yet planned his “march” or proclaimed his “dream.”
The isolated community of Glen Acres included 15 houses. In 1950 West Windsor and Plainsboro students were still attending Princeton High School. The schools had integrated in 1947 but the neighborhoods had not. The men’s groups at the three Princeton Presbyterian Churches pooled their money to help create integrated housing. They were able to gain the support, expertise, and finances of Morris Milgram, a developer whose favorite slogan was “democracy in housing.”
With the support of the three Presbyterian churches in Princeton, Milgram built Glen Acres, one of numerous interracial housing communities he helped develop across the United States. While small institutions paved the way, it was up to the pioneering residents who moved in to surmount existing social norms and to forge a community of people who could see beyond race. In the course of the film, there are interviews with many of the original homeowners and their children.
Glen Acres was possibly his most successful project since many of the residents are still the original owners and the area has retained its heterogeneous racial make-up today with families from India, China, and Malaysia.
Ciccone worked on the film for close to two years. She took a documentary film class at Mercer College and then studied one on one with a teacher at Apple. It was not until she enrolled at a class at Princeton Community TV that she discovered so much — including that she had to redo all of the editing she had already done.
There was a private screening at Princeton Community Television for Glen Acres residents to attend. “They were so receptive and there was crying as they were very moved,” she says. “I focused on the neighborhood, what they did, and how it affected their lives. They are so close as a group and it is such a cohesive neighborhood and they knew that community was important.”
— Lynn Miller
West Windsor Arts Council, 925 Alexander Road, West Windsor, www.westwindsorarts.org, 609-716-1931. Screening of “Glen Acres, a Story in Black and White,” written and directed by Diane Ciccone, a West Windsor resident and town council member. Co-sponsored by the WW-P African American Parents Support Group, the Human Relations Council, the Friends of the West Windsor Library, and the West Windsor Arts Council. Snow date is Sunday, March 6, 3 to 5 p.m. Refreshments and discussion follow the film. To view a trailer of the film visit https://vimeo.com/17342583 Sunday, February 27, 3 p.m.
From a swing dance party to master hip hop class to a concert by a folk blues guitarist and a living history program at the Old Barracks in Trenton, Black History month events in the area cover every kind of interest.
Friday, February 4
Art Exhibit, Art in the Atrium, 10 Court Street, Morristown, 973-540-0615. artintheatrium.org. Opening reception for an annual African American fine arts show showcasing the work of both established and emerging artists. “Memories of Russell” includes an exhibit by Kali McMillan of West Windsor featuring her photographs from a recent trip to Mozambique. On view to March 11.
YWCA Princeton, 59 Paul Robeson Place, Princeton, 609-497-2100. ywcaprinceton.org. Hip hop master class features guest artists speaking about the history of hip hop and what is representative of the culture. For all ages. Register. $25. 7 to 8:30 p.m.
