12 Facts About Kathleen Collins

Kathleen Collins was an American poet, playwright, writer, filmmaker, director, civil rights activist, and educator from Jersey City, New Jersey.

Kathleen Collins died of breast cancer in 1988, at Memorial Hospital in New York.

Kathleen Collins joined the faculty of City College of New York and became a professor of film history and screenwriting, where cinematographer Ronald K Gray encouraged her to go ahead with a screenplay she had adapted from a Henry Roth short story.

Kathleen Collins wrote many other plays and screenplays, but her two most well-known theatrical plays are In the Midnight Hour and The Brothers, both of which are available through Samuel French.

Kathleen Collins's 1982 Losing Ground was restored and reissued in 2015.

In February 2019, Nina Kathleen Collins compiled her mother's short stories, as well as her diary entries, scripts, and screenplays into Notes From a Black Woman's Diary.

In May 2021, a multidisciplinary artist group Afrofemononomy produced and performed a series of Kathleen Collins' one-act plays, including Begin the Beguine, The Healing, The Reading, and Remembrance at outdoor locations in New York City.

Kathleen Collins had two children from her marriage: Nina Lorez Collins and Emilio Collins.

Kathleen Collins was married a second time, to Alfred Prettyman.

Kathleen Collins died from breast cancer in 1988 at the age of 46, at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Kathleen Collins fought for civil rights, then fought for the opportunity to tell powerful stories about people of color.

Kathleen Collins is an expert and nuanced storyteller who overcame a variety of systematic obstacles in order to tell stories that challenged stereotypes and featured nuanced depictions of marginalized communities.