NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — On a late night run to a Harlem patty shop near her home, Zora Howard was recognized by a young man passing by.
“He kind of walked past me. And then he stopped,” Howard told 1010 WINS. “And he turned around and he was like, ‘You ate! You that girl from that movie huh?’”
The movie the passerby was referring to is called “Premature,” a romantic drama that Howard not only stars in but also co-wrote with director Rashad Ernesto Green.
Howard and Green wrote the film five years ago, mostly while Howard was on breaks from her graduate program at the University of California. The pair would hunker down for long stretches of time together to write, pulling on experiences from their own lives to capture the story.
“Then we premiered at Sundance,” Howard explains. “It was fast. Everything about it was fast.”
The movie, which was shot on 35mm film, follows the characters of Ayanna, a 17-year-old girl who is about to go off to college and Isaiah, a charming music producer, as they fall in love during the last days of summer in Harlem.
“We wanted to show this Black love that was pure and innocent and real,” Howard said.
Along with a passionate, honest love story, “Premature,” as Howard explained, is a chance for viewers to experience her Harlem neighborhood, the place she was born and raised.
“We’re a little far gone now but before Harlem was really something. That's the Harlem I grew up in. And that's the Harlem that we love,” Howard said. “All those blocks that you see Ayanna and Isiah holding hands and walking on, those are blocks that I grew up in, that's the park that I played in as a kid. So it's home. And I think Harlem is an amazing place.”
“Premature” was released on streaming platforms in 2020 and the film marked Howard’s screenplay debut. That same year, Howard also took her talents to the stage with her play “STEW” which ran at Walkerspace in SoHo.
This year, Howard is continuing her stage-bound storytelling, but this time from the director’s chair. Her play “Hangtime” is premiering at The Flea Theater in Tribeca in March.
“It's a special piece. It's a challenging piece. And that's what excites me,” Howard said. “It's also my professional directing debut. I've directed before, but not with this kind of institutional support behind me and this team behind me. And I think we're going to do something very special.”
Howard’s biggest inspiration, she says, is her mother, a legendary veterinarian in Harlem who spent more than three decades caring for the neighborhood’s animals after being the only African American in her doctoral graduating class at Cornell University. Howard’s mother died in 2020 from COVID-19 complications.
Despite her successes, Howard keeps it very humble. She still lives in her beloved Harlem neighborhood, is still open to learning and is thinking about what's next for her.
“I think where I go from here, at least in film, and on the stage as well, I'm trying to write what I know. And my prayer is that my knowledge continues to expand,” Howard said. “So as I know more, I can express more. But it's really presenting something that is authentic and that's real to Black people. These are the very complicated human emotions. And yes, the background of which is going to be whatever crazy circumstance that makes it a cool film to watch. But what's really at the core, these humans, these characters, that's my work. That's what I love to do.”
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