What African-American playwright influenced Kathleen Collins?
Kathleen Collins Kathleen Collins (March 18, 1942 – September 18, 1988) (also known as Kathleen Conwell, Kathleen Conwell Collins or Kathleen Collins Prettyman) was an African-American playwright, writer, filmmaker, director, civil rights activist, and educator from Jersey City, New Jersey. Her two feature narratives—"The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy" (1980) and "Losing Ground" (1982)—furthered the range of Black women's films. Although "Losing Ground" was denied large-scale exhibition, it was among the first films created by a Black woman deliberately designed to tell a story intended for popular consumption, with a feature-length narrative structure. Collins thus paved the way for Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust" (1991) to become the first feature-length narrative film created by a Black woman to be placed in commercial distribution. Influenced by Lorraine Hansberry, she wrote about "African Americans as human subjects and not as mere race subjects" [emphasis in the original].
Eric Monte Eric Monte (born Kenneth Williams; December 25, 1943) is an American screenwriter who has written for and created notable shows depicting 1970s African-American culture; most notably "Good Times", The Jeffersons and "What's Happening!!" as well as "Cooley High" .