21 Apr / Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins, foreword by Elizabeth Alexander [in Library Journal]
*STARRED REVIEW
Filmmaker/playwright/writer/activist Kathleen Collins was a multi-faceted, multi-talented pioneer who died at just 46. In 2014, indie distributor Milestone Films reintroduced her groundbreaking 1982 film, Losing Ground, one of the first movies directed by an African American woman. Beyond the celluloid, this posthumously published 16-story collection should make Collins’s work accessible to all listeners.
Collins confronts the disintegration of relationships in “Interiors,” disconnects from communication in “How Does One Say?,” pays the price of activism in “Conference: Parts I and II,” and explores the barriers of race in the title story. A bonus for the audiophile, the author’s daughter, Nina Lorez Collins, reads her own insightful, admiring introduction to her mother’s work, which does not appear in the print edition.
A versatile five-narrator cast – Cherise Boothe, Adenrele Ojo, Paula J. Parker, Desean Terry, and Dan Woren– vividly voice Collins’s spare, fearless, and perceptive pieces, albeit anonymously. Producers would have done well to add a “read by” after each title to distinguish (and credit) who’s who. Producers’ misstep aside, this is an exceptional, necessary acquisition for all libraries.
Review: “Audio,” Library Journal, April 15, 2017
Readers: Adult
Published: 2016