Kathleen Collins was one of the first African-American women to direct a feature film, but her work wasn’t widely released before her death from cancer in 1988. Nearly 30 years later, her daughter Nina Collins had the film restored, and now it’s finally getting critical recognition. Collins gives her Brief But Spectacular take on her mother’s life and legacy in cinema.

Who better to teach American literature than a resident alien who was born in Zambia? That’s how Namwali Serpell, a self-identified outsider, sees it. Serpell, a writer and associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, gives her Brief But Spectacular take on being an immigrant.

Jenni Konner, one of the three showrunners of the HBO comedy "GIRLS" and collaborator to Lena Dunham, gives her Brief But Spectacular take on why it's so important to her to be creating avenues for dialogue for women and girls, be it through the show or their newsletter "Lenny Letter."

"When you sing that this country was founded on freedom, don’t forget the duet of shackles dragging against the ground my entire life." This how poet Clint Smith begins his letter to past presidents who owned slaves. In honor of Black History Month, Smith offers his Brief But Spectacular take on the history of racial inequality in the U.S.