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Dominique Morisseau

SUNSETBABY

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OBERONBOOKS
LONDON

WWW.OBERONBOOKS.COM
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~IN:_'\_ c..1.,.,--..lti>~_;O>...., ....... ~___,c;,,_,..........,.l
1}...e-,.,., Black woman. Late 20s. Hard, quiet power, deeply
guarded, and nonetheless brilliant. Has a lifetime of walls
..Gh.,t.'I~
~-I up and will fight you before letting them down. Were she
c.L •~::~i;tQ an animal, she'd be a dangerous panther. A robber and
drug dealer, but in another life could lead a righteous
revolution.

KENYATTA
Black man. 50s. Strong, quiet power, also deeply guarded.
Almost a duplicate of Nina, except he has lost the
hardness and is now navigating a softer version of himself.
Riddled with guilt and desperate to break through Nina's
walls ... and his own. A former political prisoner and Black
revolutionary. Nina's estranged father.
~
i(
-..:,~ -
~.,4 "·
- -'V- · S'·-f'
,,,_
. I

.........
_ ....-•-·-DAMON·•- ......
-·•·•·-·····--·-- ..--
Black or Latino man, 30s. Broad, stre,~t:smaft, intelligent,
and a drug dealer and robber. Has lost his hardness
and is on the brink of retiring from the game. Nina's
partner-in-crii;ne and boyfriend. Not a stereotype. A
true, genwulisoon·to-be o-g. In another life, could be a
,/
"~v.a..schola-i;..., .

16 17
;)..·.6 l

SCENEONE
Lights rise on a handsomeman, KENYATE4,who staresinto the eyeof
a camera.just him and the camera.Intimate.
KENYATTA:~erhood. Complex. Complicated. An abstract
concept. Not clearly definable. Stages. For sure there are
stages. Levels of its affectivenes;:~Aff~ctionless.Manhood.
Confus~P~~p~ed.:!i~~~ Lack ·of preparation. ~diQg,~
Resources. lns~c:_tiQ~S.No instructions. QliJ!~ su.pp_<:>~t.
Life being run by child support. Drama. Suffocation. Lots
of suffocation. Guilt. Lots of guilt. Incompetency. ~~-~~91J!~
Freedom lost. Freedom never acquired. Fear. Lots of fear.
Decades and decades of fear. Lifetime of1;-a:r_Lifetime of
fear. Fear. Fear. ( f:>ccu.\.J>..,\)
He stopsthe recorder.Checkshis watch. Checkshisphone.Nothing.
Turnsthe camerabackon.
KENYATTA:!'atherhood. Abandonment. Repercussions.
Payback. Getting even. Standing up. Not showing up.
Never showing up. Never ...
Blackout.
t

. t:

19
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY
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SCENETWO NINA lets KENYATTA in. He walks in and slowly peruses her
Lightsup onNINA. She i.sat herapartment.She dollsup - gaudymake- surroundings.Not much.Meager.
up. Big hair. Thigh-highhookerboots.Looks overher attire. NINA: How'd you find out where I live?
Ninq_,§(TTL_one,
''FeelingGood"plays on her iP__o_d_
sp~a_lf._ers. KENYATTA:Asked around. People know you around here ...
Bua,er rinl{s. NINAgums at KENYATTA. Then shrugsit off and goesbackto her
NINA: Hol' up Damon. I'm coming! make-up.
Shepushes up her bra.Applieshairspray.Grabsherpurse.Heads NINA: Right.
G-<..\.Jl.:,.,.. to the door.Opensand seesKENYATTA. Not whoshe was expecting. -r-- Beat. .......
~· Q_..·""~-~.\ti~ .~ f;.,_ ,," ~
i· ,~~•"i':rai-l...-
,ic> ,r •: ,.,
,. '-
.t"'\.!'!,.......~1,)1.' t.. NINA: What the? # ~ KENYATTA:You listen to Nina?
..•..L., KENYATI'A:You stood
.·--.t~ me up. NINA: Apparently.
NINA: Fuck. KENYATTA:That's what. .. your mother and me .. .
KENYATTA:I went to the hotel you suggested. Rooftop. Times NINA: I know the story. Don't need a re-cap. ~ .... i:t.,ll-.;_,,(LJt.,.,•
Square. I waited for two hours. KENYATTA:Just...haven't heard it in a minute ... (Beat.)
NINA: Gotdamn. reminds me of her. ..
KENYATTA:Never even called. , d . thi 1'-te,..(i :... ·' , , t•f'/ L) ..,_.,,,...
NINA: I m not omg s. t' ,
NINA: I text. KENYATTA:Doing what?
KENYATTA:Short text. Two words. "Not coming". NINA: This ... dirge. Informal funeral. I'm not doing it.
NINA: I don't have / time for this. KENYATTA:I'm not asking you to -
KENYATTA:After two hours. NINA: Should've come. We had one. Full of folks who gave a
NINA: I gotta get gain', so ... damn. They came. You didn't. It's too late now ...
KENYATTA:You don't have a minute? KENYATTA:I gave a ... (Beat.)That's not why I'm here.
NINA: I got work. NINA: Then you better get to the point. My ride comes -
KENYATTA:Work? .,J.,,..,
JI_,_.,._.., , whether you've made your point or not, it's over.
~
KENYATTA:You look like her.
KENYATTA eyesNINA. Scansher attire.Herfall get-up.It dawns
on him. NINA: Fuck you.
KENYATI'A:(Hmph.JWork ... KENYATTA:I'm just. .. telling you -
NINA: You got a problem with that? NINA: I know what I look like.
KENYATTA:Would it matter? KENYATTA:Under the make-up ... all that paint -
NINA:No. NINA: Paint is my prerogative. Do not come here and tell
KENYATTA:I just need a minute. me what I can or cannot put on my face. I cover what I
choose to cover. I govern myself. You're a stranger that I'm
NINA: That's all I got. Somebody's coming to pick me up, so ...
offering five minutes to. Take it or leave it.
just come and say what you gotta say.
KENYATTA:I guess I'll take it.

20 21
 DOMINIQUEMORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

NINA: So? (Pause.)Spill it. NINA: You better.

KENYATTA: There are these .. .letters .... KENYATTA: I can't.
NINA: I knew it. NINA: Why can't you?
KENYATTA: ... she wrote. KENYATTA: I need them.
NINA: Paper thin. NINA: For what?
KENYATTA: You know what I'm saying? KENYATTA: I just ... need them.
NINA: Transparent as hell. That's what you are. I don't even NINA: You and everybody else.
know you and I can see through you like x-ray vision. KENYATTA: Who's everybody else?
KENYATTA: I'm trying to be upfront.
NINA: Act like you don't know.
NINA: Upfront. (Hmph.) Yeah okay.
KENYATTA: I don't know.
KENYATTA: She wrote them ... to me ....
NINA: Liar.
NINA: So.

KENYATTA: You have them? ---i

#'
KENYATTA: I don't know.
NINA: How do you know there are letters?
NINA: What if I do?
KENYATTAis quiet.
KENYATTA: I'd like to see them.
Yep. Caught you. Damn liar.
NINA: Fuck no.
KENYATTA: I'm not lying.
KENYATTA: You have them?
NINA: How do you know there are letters?
NINA: I didn't say that.
KENYATTA: I have heard.
KENYATTA: Please, Nina.
NINA: From who?
NINA: Don't please Nina me. Do not say my name as if you've
KENYATTA: Friends. Former. .. colleagues.
said it a hundred times. As if we have this familiarity
between us. We are not familiar ..We are not close. We are NINA: (Laughing.)Colleagues? That's what you call them?
not in sync. You are a stranger that I let in and now that Colleagues?
you've finally said what you wanted, I'm letting you out. KENYATTA: It's been a long time. Not exactly sure what to call
KENYATTA: I know you don't trust me. them now.
NINA: You think? NINA: Losers. Deadbeats. Fiends -

KENYATTA: I know you don't know me. KENYATTA: Alright. That's enough.

NINA: I don't know anyone. But her. I knew her. And she NINA: That's enough?

knew me. She's the only person who knew me. She's dead, KENYATTA: Yes. That's enough.
v"' and I'm a mystery to everyone else. Got it? You and me ... NINA: You comin' in my house telling me what's enough?
we don't know each other. She was the link and she's dead. KENYATTA: I'm coming in your house to try to ...
Let it go.
KENYATTA
falls silentagain. Ji1.,ordr
escapehim. NINAglaresat him.
KENYATTA: I can't just let it go.
NINA: Try to ... what?

22 23
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

KENYATTA doesn'tanswer. NINA: I'm not telling you.

You can't even admit it. Hunh? Can you? You can't even KENYATTA:
They belong to me.
be straight up. NINA: No. That's where you're way the hell off. They belong
KENYATTA:
It's not what you think. tome.
NINA:You don't know what I think. KENYATTA:She wrote them to me.
KENYATTA:
Nina, do you - NINA: She left them to me. It's in her will. "So that you
NINA: Do not fucking call me Nina! will understand what we do for love, Nina." That's her
KENYATTA:
That's your name - statement. To me. They're mine.
KENYATTA:
You've read them?
NINA: I hate the way it sounds when you say it. Like you know
me. Like you own my name. You do not own shit around NINA: I don't have to tell you.
here. Got it? KENYATTA:You have them.
KENYATTA:It's your name. NINA: I don't have to tell you that.
NINA: I know it's my name. KENYATTA:
Tell me or not. I know you have them.
KENYATTA:
We named you. NINA: It doesn't matter to you. You're not putting your hands
NINA: I know that. on them.
KENYATTA:You know? KENYATTA:I just need to read -
NINA: Yes, I know! NINA:No.
KENYATD1 falls silent. ilJgg._er
soundsagaiJZ.NINA walks overand
The bua,erring!·Pause. 1"'~,K\c:yli\.L\l•;~
IJ "-·~-' ..,
:6'J,..t~P.•·'
pressesthe button to talk. 1J,,~~"' e.:,.....Q~1
NINA walks overto the bua,erto speak. , ___
.. -.........•• 1

NINA: I'm coming down in one sec Damon. NINA: (Into the speaker.)Two minutes.
Pause. She looksat KENYATTA.
NINA: I gotta bounce. NINA: You know how many people want these letters?
KENYATTA:How many?
KENYATTA:
When will I be able to catch you again?
If
NINA:There is no catching me again.''
~· NINA: Hundreds. Folks from all over. Stupid college robots
writing their dissertations. Professors at universities.
KENYATTA:I need to see you again.
Publishing companies. The press. Everybody wants them.
NINA: I don't care what you need. Long-lost love letters to a political prisoner. Notes on the
KENYATTA:I'm coming back to talk with you. revolution. Ashanti X writes to Kenyatta Shakur while he
NINA: You come back and I'm calling the cops. You want me serves time for. .. what was it again?
to do that? KENYATTA:Nina -
KENYATTA staresat NINA silently. NINA: Oh right. .. robbing an armored truck. Nice.
I didn't think you'd want me to do that. KENYATTA:Okay now.
KENYATTA:I need to know about the letters. Are they here? NINA: In the name of some bullshit cause -

24 25
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

KENYATTA: Wasn't bullshit - NINA: Bullshit. It's all over WBAI. Ashanti X passes away. Her
best friend and former roomate-in-arms - Fumi Sundiata,
NINA: To steal capitalist dollars in the name of third-world
democracy- comes forward with a stash of letters that Ashanti kept in
their old crib. Un-mailed letters. To you. (Pause.)But left-
KENYATTA: That's an understatement -
in-writing - to moi.
NINA: While she's raising his bastard child.
KENYATTA: I knew there were letters. I didn't know they were
KENYATTA: That's not how it - worth ... (Beat.)I just need to see them.••
NINA: Bastard being moi. NINA looksat KENYATTA. The desperationin his eyes.
KENYATTA: You're not being - Buzzer ringsagain.Ant[again;Ai;u.:l.
aga.t._71
a!J,_t:l
ag(L_f!.!
aJJ,.¢.ag<JiT!:,
__
NINA: So fucking romantic. NINA stor~-~~~;to the intercomand crushesthe button. fJ.,.,;✓,., ,Jt;;,-,~
KENYATTA: Okay now.
NINA: And who would've known? They're worth a fortune!
__
,.__
l#
_
,&
NINA: l'.ml.1J.&..lw.}g
Beat.
~QmmgJ
C ,._._!,.' -~ .:..,;~~
. ...
~~·

These bullshit letters to a bullshit nigga in jail. Worth tens

NINA: Well ... too bad for you ... I already sold 'em.
of thousands.
KENYATTA: (Incredulous.)You're lying.
KENYATTAfalls silent. Tlzissurpriseshim.
NINA: Nope.
Oh. Wait. Tell me you didn't know that.
KENYATTA: To who?
KENYATTAremainssilent. A little shocked.
NINA: Some white motherfucker. Don't even remember his
KENYATTA: Worth what?
name. It's a wrap. He's gone. Probably writing a paper
NINA: You didn't know these letters were the hot shit? You about the rm-requited love of Black activists right now.
didn't know that every asshole from left to right has been NINA grabs her purse and keys. Looks at KENYATTA, who looks
calling me trying to get their hands on this treasure? My
crushed.
Mama not six feet in the ground before I'm getting calls
and emails on how amazing Ashanti X was and how this I got a deal to go make. You gotta bounce.
one is such a huge fan of her work in the Black Liberation KENYATTAheadsto the dooremptily.He stops.
Movement in the late 70s and that one has been studying KENYATTA: We named you after Nina Simone because she
her since she instituted the Free Lunch Programs for inner- was our rebel music. You were going to be our revolution.
city kids and this and this and that and that. .. You didn't That's what we said.
know? You didn't come here cuz you want a piece of that NINA: Well ... I sell drugs and rob niggas. Ashanti X died
Ashanti X sweet potato pie? Wanna put your hands on with an addiction. And your ass is coming back here to
them tens of thousands that my Mama's worth now that be sentimental. Ain't nothin' sentimental about a dead
she's dead?
revolution.
KENYATTA: No.
KENYATTA: I'm going to find those letters.
NINA: Bullshit.
NINA: Good luck.
KENYATTA: I didn't know.
KENYATTAlooksat NINA inquisitivelyfor a moment.

26 27
DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU
SUNSETBABY

KENYATIA: You do have her eyes ... powerful, unrelenting

eyes. SCENETHREE
§.E:NYAITAexits. KENYATDI.,alone,with his camera.
KENYATTA: Revolution. Change. The act of shifting things ...
NINA rema0!._:··.sf.f!-ri!!:g_a.lJ.er
him.
hopefully for the better. Recognition that things "as is" is
17zebuaer ringsand rinasand rin A d . ..

-
-·-----•---~---· ----- --~· --,gs. n~-------
Blackout. rzngsand rznasand
~--·•-··--s?.·
____
·ng.
rz__
._,,_,,}·
not good enough. Too much ignorance. Too much apathy.
Not enough self-lessness. Greed and corruption. Ignoring
basic human suffering. Ignoring basic human need.
Negligence. (Beat.)Revolution is the man in the mirror.
Change is self. (Beat.)The man in the mirror. The scariest
revolution there is ...
Lightsshift to NINA in her apartment.She countscash.
NINA: Five hundred. Eight seven. And fifteen cents? What the
fuck is this change?
NINA re-countsthe last bit of cashquickly.Remarkablyfast. She is
a super-pro.
She stopsshort.Frowns.
NINA: Damn him.
NINA takes the cash.Removesa bookfrom a shelf Debt America
OwesToBlacks. Opensit. It is missingpages.Instead,it is a deep
vaultfor cash. She stuffs the moneyinside the booksecurely,and
placesit backon the shelf
Then she disrobes.Gets readyfor bed. Wipesoff make-up.Maybe
letsherhair down. Suddenlyshe becomesa softerversionof herself
She goesto her iPod.Puts on Nina Simone, "Blackis the Colorof
My TrueLove'sHair".
Poursherselfsometea.Rubs herfeet. Sits on the couch.
. Suddenly- a break.Emotion overwhelmsher.She criesto herself
Wailingin herprivacy.
BU<Zerrings.
Beat. She doesn'tmove.
BU<Zer ringsagain.
She wipesher tears.Goesoverto the bua,er.Staresfor a moment.
It ringsagain.Shefinally answers:
NINA: What nigga?

28
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 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

For thefirst time, we hear a voicethroughthe intercom. DAMON: Ten stacks don't come quick when you got other shit
VOICE: (Throughintercom.)Can I come up? to deal with. Setbacks. Pay off Rene with tltis child support
NINAhesitatesfor a moment. Thenfinally bu;;:zes
theperson in. b-s.
Sizegoesbackto sit on her couch. NINA: He's your son.

The door opensshortly.DAMON,young handsomeman, enters.He DAMON: Don't mean she gotta bleed me dry, Nina. That's not
goesstraightto a tableand startsunloadingmoney.Vials.Weaponry. how we gotta do tltis.
DAMON: Run with this nigga clear across town talkin' bout he NINA: I'm not talking about tltis tonight.
gonna pay me. We go up to damn City Island. I'm like - I DAMON: What's the deal with you?
know this fool don't live up here with this little project NINA: I'm tired.
money he got me playin' with. But he does. I follow DAMON: You tired of me?
him clean to this damn condo. White nigga got a condo.
NINA: I'm just tired.
Take me all the way til' we get to the building before he
wises up like - maybe I shouldn't take this drug dealin' DAMON: Want me to rub your feet?
motherfucker up to my clean ass condo in the Bronx that NINA:No.
ain't really the Bronx no more. Maybe I should keep him DAMON: I'll do it anyway.
out here in the windy ass cold night air when the breeze
DAMONgrabsNINA'sfoot andstartsmassagingit. Sizedoesn'tprotest.
from my waterfront property is so strong it could lift up ten
Doesn't enjoyit. ltjust ... happens.
niggas carrying 50,000 kilos a piece. So I stay out there ...
wondering why I ain't just shoot this nigga and be done DAMON: So you gonna tell me?
with it. I'm gettin' too soft for this ... (Beat.) My gray sweats NINA: Tell you what?
here?
DAMON: Who the dude was that was keepin' you tonight.
DAMONstopsand looksat NINA. NINA: I told you. Nobody.
DAMON: What's wrong with you? DAMON: Seem like somebody. Make you uptight and stiff all
NINA ignoreshim. night. Seem like somebody who knows how to get under
You put the money up already? your skin-
NINA: In the book. (Shift.) What's with the change? NINA: Damon -

DAMON: Was payin' me in pennies. Ain't gonna tum down DAMON· Skin that only I'm supposed to know how to get
no money. But when he come back for more and can't pay uncle~. I'm the only one 'spose to know that code. I'm the
tl1e debt. .. we got problems. Follow his ass to City Island only one 'spose to have the key to unlock all that attitude.
or shoot that motherfucker in the head. (Pause.)I followed Shouldn't be nobody else can rub you wrong and make
him ... our skin itch but me. But somebody else had that goin' on
~ore I even got here. You think I ain't noticed?
NINAlays out on the couchandpulls a blanketoverherselfDAMON
eyesherfor a minute. Then approaches. NINA: So what - you trying to accuse me of something?

DAMON: We get ten stacks. That's it. We're gone. DAMON: I'm just wonderin' who you gave all my agitation
NINA: You said that a million times already. power to.
NINA: An old man. Washed up ole' man. That's it.

30 31
 Itr
DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU t
SUNSETBABY

DAMON: What's he here for? Got a habit? many years. This was on some elevate-up-out-the-hood
NINA: Wanted some stuff. But I wasn't sellin'. He's ... messed plan. Not on some retirement-social-security-plan. Shit
up on some ... stuff. don't come with no 401K, Nina. I ain't tryin' to live on a
DAMON: A customer? hustle til' I'm 80. Get somewhere and start over. Warm
weather-type-shit. Go to a beach where the water is true
NINA: Wanted to be. But he wants a different product. Ain't
got it, so I sent him on. blue ... not no rustic brown or green. Bathe you in the
fuckin' Euphrates or the Tigris. Make love to you on the
DAMON: What's he want? He got money? We can get it. Nile. Feed you some nana and chickpeas or crush some
NINA: He's worthless. grapes under our feet in fuckin' Tuscany. I'm over thirty -
DAMON: Yeah? know what I'm sayin'? I want some of that real dough boy
NINA: Yeah. livin'. Not this hood-on-the-comer chump change livin'.
I want that "sit-up-in-my-casa-while-other-motherfuckers-
DAivlONlooksat NINA intensely.
do-my-dirty-work-and-I-don't-never-have-to-even-look-at-
DAMON: You ain't lying to me Nina? another-blown-out-brain-on-the-concrete" type shit.
NINA: Damon can we fuckin' drop it? I'm too tired for this. NINA: London.
DAMON: Cuz if somebody movin' in on my space, I need to DAMON: You want London?
know now.
NINA: Trafalgar Square.
NINA: He's gone. Not coming back.
DAMON: London's kinda expensive, Nina.
DAMON: Alright. You say so ... then I'ma take that ...
NINA: You said wherever I want.
DA.iv/ONgrabsNINA's otherfoot.
DAMON: When I say that? I didn't say that just now.
DAMON: You feel tense baby.
NINA: You said it before.
NINA: I'm always tense.
DAMON: You want London? You got London. I'ma get it for
DAMON: Mad knots in your feet. Walkin' on balls of stress. It you.
ain't healthy.
NINA: You lie.
NINA: You my doctor now?
DAMON: You think I'm bullshittin'? You want it? You gonna
DAMON: I'm your man. I'm tellin' you what I feel in your have it. May have to be more like Peckham. I don't know
body. Somethin' tight and rock hard. You too hard baby. about Trafalgar Square. But you gonna have it.
Even for this shit. Need to soften up.
NINA; I wanna spend my nights on the London eye. Maybe
NINA: You tellin' me to soften up while you takin' pennies see a sunset. It'd be nice.
from niggas? I get as soft as you we ain't never gonna stack
DAMON: That the ferris wheel type thing?
ten gs.
NINA: Yep.
DAMON: You callin' me soft?
DAMON: You ain't gonna change up on me now, right? Cuz
NINA: You called yourself soft.
everytime you watch the travel channel, can't be changin'
DAMON: For this shit - yeah. I ain't tryin' to keep bein' this destinations.
cold-blooded nigga. This shit wasn't 'spose to last this
NINA: That's what I want.

32 33
 '
DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU
r
''
'

SUNSETBABY

SCENEFOUR
DAMON: First you said Paris cuz of the Eiffel Tower. Then Lights up on the emptyapartment.Echoesof male conversation
in the
Rome cuz of the shots of the Sistine Chapel. Now you see hallway.Thedoorknobin the apartmentturns.
Trafalgar Square -
DAMONenters.Followedby KENYATTA.
NINA: The universal health care. The art. The theater district. I DAMON: (Offstage.)... she ain't even in right now ... out takin'
like the accents.
care of some business ... but we can parlay til' she get
DAMON: The accents? back ...
NINA: Sounds nice. Friendly to the ear. DAMON enters.Followedby KENYATTA.
DAMON: Asshole is coded in every dialect, Nina. You can chill on the couch right there.
NINA: It's what I want. I KENYATTAnodsand sits, tensely.
DAMON: Then I'ma give you what you want. You believe me,
it You do coke and Hermy/ Vodka cranberry/ what?
)'
right? i
! KENYATTA: Vodka's fine.
NINA: We'll see. t
t( DAMON: We got this Ethiopian honey wine. But my girl ain't
DAMON: (Hmph.)We'll see. (Beat.)I'ma get us a globe. For gonna want you havin' none of that. It's her shit. She get
perspective. Not just remember the shit from geography real nice off it. Sweetest bitch you wanna know.
class ... but see what it is. The world. And we gonna get KENYATE4 raisesan eyebrowto DAMON.DAMONcatchesit.
around it. Leave this east New York shit and move on. So I ..
DAMON: You lookin' at me like that for? Whatsthematter?
can finally see you ... happy ...
You don't like them words? Don't worry. Nina don't mind
NINA: We'll see ...
it. She knows she can be a bitch. Attitude be with the up
DAMON: You believe in me, right Nina? Cuz if you don't, then and down on some bipolar shit sometimes. I told her to
fuck the whole thing right now. Fuck the hustlin' and the get checked out for that and she smacked me. She can be
stackin' and the Bonnie and Clyde deal between us. If you no nonsense sometimes. Even with me. My badd bitch.
ain't on this with me, say whassup and 'we can dead this. Down ass bitch. Got levels. Not just how you thinking of
Cuz the only thing I'm pushin' for is you and me. That's the word. Bitch be her independence. No curve in her
tl1e fuel. And if I ain't runnin' on this, I ain't runnin'. So ... backbone, scoliosis-type deal. She walk straight and hard.
you believe? Musta got that from you, right?
Beat. KENYATTA: (Ignoringthis.}You both live here?
NINA: Yeal1.. .I believe ... DAMON: This her crib really. But I leave my stuff here time
DAMON mountsNINA and kissesherpassionately. to time. This close to where we do a lot of. .. work. So I'm
Lightsfade. over here enough to make this my address. But I don't
though. Leave her to her independence. When we live
together, it's gonna be an upgrade. For now, we just bide
our time wherever we got space.
~NYATTA: You and Nina are ... exclusive?
DAMON: Better be. I'll fuckin' kill her if she breaks my heart.

34 35
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

Beat. DAMON laughs. DAMON: I know they got slums.Just like over here. You can

DAMON: Naaa, we cool. But it's just me and her. Down for
survive in one slum, you can survive in 'em all.
whatever. KENYATTA: A Brazilian slum over an East New York project.

KENYATTA: Down for whatever. (Hmph.) How long have you DAMON: I'm not choosing the slums. I'm just saying what's
been together? over there. It's also beautiful women and Latin folks that
DAMON: Two and a half years - officially. Longer than that
are really Black and political consciousness in the lowest
if you count the time she made me sweat her. We on that of the masses. Social dynamite. That's what they got over
selious track. Most women don't make it past two months. there.
KENYATTA: You a rolling stone, hunh? KENYATTA: Social dynamite?

DAMON: Not even. It's just these women. Too simple. Too DAMON: You know %_evenSpitze.!._?
matelialistic. Too caught up on that other stuff. Nina the KENYATTA: The academic.
only woman I can slow down to ... you know? Make me DAMON: Breaks down these two terms: S9cial junk and Social
move at her pace 'steada the other way around. dynamite. The socialjunk ... those are the group of folks
DAMON hands KENYATTA a drink. who've fallen through society's cracks. Or been pushed
Here you go. Vodka cran. through. Whatever. And now they are the dependent
class. The people stuck on government handouts and what
KENYATTA: So tell me how you met.
not. Accept the roles given 'em. Then you got the §ocial
DAMON: Ain't romantic. You sure you wanna hear this? dynamite. Same conditions. Fell through society's cracks ...
KENYATTA: I'm asking. but they fight back. Rebel against the government 'steada
DAMON: What difference do it make? We met. asking for handouts. Explode and be heard or whatever.
Dynamite.Junk. Thin line ... right?
KENYATTA: Makes no difference.Just culious. Finding out
about her life. KENYATTA: Huh ....

DAMON: Some things better left unknown. DAMON: So the question is always ... which one are you?

KENYATTA: You and her plan to move in together? Beat.

DAMON: We got traveling plans. I'ma take her to see the Nina say I be on my Malcolm-in-prison shit sometimes. No
world. disrespect.
KENYATfA: That right? KENYATTA: You're well read.

DAMON: That's what all this paper pushin' is about. Gotta DAMON: I know some shit.
make moves. Get the funding. Get up outta here. Move KENYATTA: You do.
overseas. She's on this London kick right now cuz of the DAMON: I know you famous just like her Mama.
free health care or whatever. But I'm on that Rio tip. We'll
KENYATTA: Famous is relative.
see if I can charm her over to Brazil. England'll burn a hole
in my pocket before I get through customs. DAMON: Famous to the streets. Kenyatta Shakur. It's a
lotta underground emcees that name-drop you on their
KENYA17'A: What do you know about Brazil?
rnixtapes.
KENYATTA: So I've heard.

36 37
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

DAMON:'Specially cuz of the way you helped to hide refugees DAMON:Working off-the-books, creating commerce that
at your crib back in the day. Underground jail-dodge safe- doesn't contribute to the lowering of national debt, that
haven. That's some new age underground railroad shit. doesn't help to aide and abet war funds, that doesn't
KENYATTA:
It wasn't that simplistic. subscribe to the totem pole social structure that keeps the
social junk at the bottom ... that's another form of activism.
DAMON:Don't sound too complicated to me.
KENYATTA:
I wouldn't call it that.
KENYATTA: A lot of those fellas that were being targeted by
government agencies were kids. They had no proper legal DAMON:Nah, you probably wouldn't. Probably lower your
de~ense: Their rights were being violated and they were status among the masses. Put you on the same level as
bemg pmned to statements against the movement through the street hustlers. Or maybe raise the street hustlers to
all types of brutality. I was offering what I could. A place your level. But then ... that's what the Black liberation
for them to be sheltered until they had time to earn proper movements were ignited by, right? The social dynamite ...
legal funds. KENYAITA sizesDAMON up.
DAMON:We need soldiers like you out here now. I know a KENYATTA:
You talk a lot.
~unch of folks could use you to help them dodge some DAMON:I got a lot on my mi~
time and blow some shit up.
Beat.
KENYATTA: It wasn't just about dodging jail. This was the early KENYATTA: So you and Nina ... you have traveling plans to
80s. Dif~erent time than now. Crack had hit. Was being leave - when?
pus~~d mto the community and destroying everyone's
DAMON:Soon as we stack the right amount of dough.
fam1hes. We were protecting our neighborhoods from
dru?s ".-°dcorrupt authority. We were combating the KENYATTA:Justthe two of you?
cap1tal1smthat was eating away at the fabric of our DAMON:'Less Rene give over DJ.
society and inducing community violence. It wasn't KENYATTA:
Rene?
just about blowing shit up. It was about attacking dis-
DAMON:My son's mother.
enfranchisement. There was method to the madness.
KENYATTA:
Ah. Rene.
DAMON:You ain't gotta defend your cause to me. I get it.
DAMON:DJ is my son. Seven years old. He's a tough one.
KENYATfA:You get it.
Punch is already hard. Gonna have a left hook packin'
DAMON:The fuck-the-government, disrupt capitalism, develop more power than mine one of these days.
our own economy-type-shit. Whether it's the 70s or the 80s
KENYATTA:
Your son.
~r right now._I'm _withit. Believe in that cause myself. My
lme of work 1s a little different, but same principles. DAMON:But his Mama is a bitch. Not the good kind.
KENYKITA:Principles? Which are? KENYATTA:
The good kind.
DAMON:Defy the rules of the current economy or you will DAMON:Like Nina. Nah, Rene is on that vindictive shit. Won't
always be at the very end of the receiving line. You didn't hardly let me see my kid and when I do, she's screarnin'
know tl1at, hunh? on me for all my stacks. Can't come around this chick for
all the yackin' she do. She the kind of woman think with
KENYATTA:
Know what, exactly?
her heart. And once it's broken, her mind breaks too. Can't

38 39
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

think straight and simple logic. Use our son to try to win KENYATTA:I need to see them.
back some love that wasn't really there. Selfish is what she DAMON: This why you come up on me on the street? Got
is. And my kid is sufferin'. Make me out to be the bad guy
niggas pointing me out sayin' I know your daughter like
when I'm only half bad. You know what that's like, right? she gonna be thrilled to see you. Like I'm gonna bring you
KENYATTA:I'm sorry? home and there'll be some kinda happy reunion. But I
DAMON: Father - bad-guy shit. You and Nina, right? know my girl. She wasn't happy to see you.
KENYATTA:I don't - KENYATTA:She and I have a lot of history.
DAMON: Cuz she must hate your fuckin' guts_ DAMON: History is bullshit. Only thing matters is the present.
KENYATTA:Pardon? The past don't do a damn thing but keep you chokin' on
bad memories.
DAMON: To never mention you.
KENYATTA:I was hoping you could help.
KENYATTA:She didn't mention me?
DAMON: How you figure that?
DAMON: But I get it. She's not as slick as she thinks she is. You
come here the other day? KENYATTA:You could talk to her. If she listens to you.
KENYATTA:She didn't mention that? DAMON: Nina don't listen to nobody but Nina. (Beat.) You
DAMON:Nah. love her?

KENYATTA:I see. KENYATTA:Pardon?

DAMON: Her Mama. You love her? Hate her? Wanna tear
DAMON: Tell me this. How'd you find me today?
them shits up. Burn 'em? Make love to 'em? What you
KENYATTA:People know you.
need 'em for? These letters.
DAMON: No shit. A lot of people know me cuz I know a lot KENYATTA:It's complicated.
of people. But you come askin' for me, you got business.
DAMON: I'm well read. I understand complicated shit. Try me.
Tl:at's the only reason people pointing me out What you
th111kI can help you with? You got a habit? KENYATTA:They have answers.
KENYATTA:No. DAMON: To what?

DAMON: I ain't think so. 'Least not the kind I cater to. But you KENYATTA:A lot of things. (Shift.) You've seen them?
need somethin'. What is it? DAMON:Nah.
KENYATTA:Letters. KENYATTA:Huh.
DAMON: Whatletters? Letters from who? DAMON: (Cakulating.) So these letters, they important to you.
KENYATTA:From Ashanti. Real important.
DAMON: Her Mama? KENYATTA:(Cautious.) Yeah ...
KENYATTA:That's right. DAMON: They must be important to Nina too.
DAMON: Nina got these letters? KENYATTA:You've never seen them?
KENYATTA:She inherited them. DAMON: Not yet. (Beat.) You know what Nina got left of her
Mama? Shit.
DAMON:And what - you tryin' to take 'em?

40 41
 DOMINIQUEMORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

KENYATTA: What's that? KENYATTA: I'll leave you my number. You'll call to let me
DAMON: Couple months ago - we had this other place. know. And we can talk. If you're willing.
Nina had a bunch a shit. Piles of crap. Books. Pictures. DAMON: I might be.
Mementos and whateva. Used to keep a box of memories KENYATTAremovesa pen and a slip ofpaperfrom his shirtpocket
of childhood junk. Cards and shit from ex-boyfriends. andjots downhis info.
I told her to throw it out like a hundred times but she
DAMON: This what you came to talk to Nina about?
wouldn't. Pictures of her and her Mama. You name it. But
5-0 was on us heavy - after this fool we used to work for. KENYATTA: She wasn't much up for talking with me.
Raided our spot. Ransacked all our shit. Had to blow that DAMON: So you came back up a second time? For what- to
scene for awhile. Went back up in there and niggas had get kicked out again? (Pause.)Unless you came to ge~
cleaned us out. Threw out the pies. Stole our CDs and shit. answers from me ... and this visit had no thin' to do With
Hardly had nothin' left. That's why this place is so ... bleak. Nina at all...
Moved over here with nothin'. It's empty. Dead as her KENYATTAlooksat DAMONstoicly.He handsDAMONhis irifo.
Man1a is now.
DAMON: (In realization.)Mutha ffff. ........ (Beat.)You played
And all the memories she coulda had to laugh and cry me.
over .. .it's gone. Wiped out.
KENYATTA: You won't mention this visit to her, right?
KENYATTA: I didn't realize ...
DAMON: I look that amateur to you? You might know the
DAMON: So .. .if she got these letters like you say. These letters game ... but I know some shit too. Trust.
her Mama left her. Last piece of somethin' to hold onto ...
KENYATTA: I'm counting on that.
my Nina ain't throwin' them out. She's a sentimental bitch
sometimes. Don't show it, but she is. KENYATTAheadsto the door.
KENYATTA: You think they're here? KENYATTA: Pleasure talking with you ...

DAMON: Makes sense. Don't it? DAMON: Likewise ...

KENYATTA: And you would be willing to talk to her. .. for me ... KENYATTAleaves.
DAl'vION: Well that depends. DAMON waits a beat.Looks at the emptyspacein the apartment.
Pause.
KENYATTA: Of course it depends. What are the terms?
Thensuddenly,he burstsoverto thebookcaseand tearsintoafeverish
DAMON: How bad you want these letters? You want 'em
search.Openingbooks.Tossingthem.Flippingpillows.Reckless.
badder than Nina? Cuz Nina is pretty damn bad.
KENYATIA: I want them. Suddenlyhe stops.Seesa looseboardin thefloor.Lifts it andfinds
a lockedbox.ls this it?
DAMON: How bad?
He triestopry it openwith his hands.No suchluck.
KENYATTA: Depends on if you have them. If you can retrieve
them, there might be something to talk about.
Searches
for a tool.A knife maybe.Triesagain.Not happening.
DAMON: Only thing talks is money.
FinallyDAMONgrabshis coat... and the box... and hurriesout.
The messin the apartmentis left behind... Waiting...
KENYATfA: If there're no letters, there's no conversation.
DAMON: And if there are letters?

42 43
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

SCENEFIVE Lightsshift.
KENYAn'A talks into the camera. NINA enters the apartment. Stops when she sees things thrown

KENYATTA: I always believed revolution was possible. I around. What the?

dreamed about it. Since childhood. Since I saw brother She immediatelynoticesthe looseboard.Lifts it. Sees the box is
Kwarne Ture speak at the community center by my block. missing.Slams her hand on theground.
He was no longer Stokley Carmichael by then. Dashiki NINA: Fuckin' bastard!
and bearded. Skinny but a massive man to me. Long and Suddenly she gasps. Has a moment of panic. Rushes over to a
brown and a face that looked like it carried its own light.
painting on the wall.
He was the beginning. His voice was my awakening. Asked
Pulls it off with urgency.Peelsthe backing.
me to defy my complacency and take a role in the system.
I was just a knucklehead kid then. Stealing snacks from For thefirst time:A stash of lettersrubberbandedtogether.
the corner store and trying to bag girls for bragging rights. NINA countsthem.Seesthat theyare in tow.
But that day ... brother Kwarne ... I swear he saw through Breathesa sighof relief
me. His eyes undressed my soul. His words grabbed me
Puts them backinto thepainting. Sealsthepainting backup. Re-
by the throat. He demanded me to question my behavior
mountsit on the wall.
and the conditions of my people. He said, in that liquid
voice of his, "No man can give another man his freedom". Goesto her iPod.PlaysNina Simone, "WorkSong".
Freedom would be something we had to determine, and Startsgettingdressed.Sets out her wig. Make-up.Heels.
take, for ourselves. Freedom for me and my people. All Dolls herselfup. Beginsto looklike a differentperson.
of our people. All power to all the people. And power is
The buzzerrings.NINA ignoresit.
a cycle that needs to be rotated. Re-distributed. It would
not happen in my lifetime, I thought. This freedom that I It ringsagainand again.NINA ignoresit.
demanded ... "Whatever it was supposed to be, I might not A pause. She continuesgettingdressed.
ever touch it. But there was a plan. Plant my seed into a Momentslater,the doorburstsopen.DAMON walks in.
warrior woman who was as powerful as the sun. Build the DAMON:The buzzer broke?
revolution in the offspring. Because life is not a line. It is a
NINA:Nope.
circl~. A cycle. And you are the next phase. The untainted,
un-wilted next phase. You are the change. Do you hear DAMON:I got the spare you gave me.
me? You are my change. You are everything. You are ... NINA: Lucky for that.
KENYATTA stops.Rewinds the camera.Replays. DAMONseesthe messhe left.
REPLAY NINA: I'll be ready to leave in ten.
You are the change. Do you hear me? You are my change. DAMON:Good. That's good. Remmie and them expectin' us
You are everything. You are... · at Albert's spot tonight. Say all the shit at his place now.
KENYATTA stopsagain. Thinks. Rewinds.Fastforwards.Stops. Gonna go pick it up and make three runs tonight. Then we
Pressesrecord. be done.

KENYATTA: This is for you. This was always for you. The
He watchesherput on make-up.
whole point. . .it was always you ...

44 45
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

DAMON: Put that red lipstick on. That's the color make you DAMON: Don't talk to me like that, Nina.
look the illest. NINA: Trust?! How you know there are letters, Damon?
Sheputs the lipstickon slowly.DAMON watchesher. DAMON: I'm asking the questions right now.
DAMON: You look real sexy when you do that shit. (Pause.) NINA: You trying to steal from me.
Sorry I left the place in a mess. Was lookin' for some stuff
DAMON: I'm trying to build with you! But I can't do that when
in a rush.
I feel like you keepin' secrets. Some real important secrets,
NINA: (Calmly.)Where's my money? Nina. How am I supposed to be your man and make plans
DAMON: What? for us when you can't even tell me that your Mama done
NINA: In the box. Under the floor. Where'd you take my left you a fortune?
money? NINA: She didn't leave me no fortune.
DAMON: I don't know what you're - DAMON: She left you letters, Nina! Letters I figure is obviously
NINA: Nigga do not fuck with me. \ worth a damn. Letters worth so much it'll bring your
DAMON stops.Looksat NINA. Daddy outta the woodworks to come lookin' for 'em.
That's worth somethin' alright.
DAMON: Why you keepin' secrets from me, Nina?
NINA: You been talkin' to him behind my back, haven't you?
NINA: Where's my money?
DAMON: He come lookin' for you. But he found me instead ..
DAMON: vVe'spose to be Bonnie and Clyde - ain't that right? And he's gonna pay out for this stuff. We gonna go to Paris
Ice Cube and Yo Yo. Trena and Trick Daddy, right? Can't on this dude. Brazil. Or London. Wherever the hell you
be my down ass bitch if you holdin' something back.
want.
NINA: I'm gonna ask one more time.
NINA: He told you that?
DAMON: I took it. Box was fuckin' hard to open. Woulda shot
DAMON: We had a talk.
that shit off, but was afraid I'd blow a hole in whatever was
NINA: He's lying to you, Damon. He's a broke ass has-been
in it. Or maybe the bullet would ricochet off the metal.
pseudo activist. That's what he is. Nothin' more. And you
Whatever. So I had my dude Vinne clip it. Thought it
let him gas you up on some bullshit octane.
mighta been somethin' else. But then saw that it was about
seven stacks. Three stacks short of ten gs. And here I DAMON: How you know he bluffin'?
thought we was about five or six stacks short. My girl sittin' NINA: Cuz I know.
here on two thirds of our dream and didn't even tell me. DAMON: You can at least see what he's talkin' about. Give him
Whassup with that?
a price. See if he can meet it.
NINA: Damon, where'd you take my money? NINA: I'm not givin' him or nobody no price. Letters ain't for
DAMON: Relax, Nina. I got it. I had it counted. Official. And sale. ;:1.
now it's back. Well ... in my possession. I'm trying to figure /DAMON: Where they at, Nina? ~ ~
out why our trust seems to be dissipating.
NINA: I'm not telling you, Damon.
NINA: Trust? What trust? Nigga you ain't never been
DAMON: What's with these secrets? What you got to hide?
trustworthy. Not the whole time I been wasting with you.
Nobody in this game is. What your Mama got to hide?

46 47
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

NINA: I'm not selling 'em. DAMON: What's different about it? It's still you and me against
DAMON: Why the hell not? What - you bein' sentimental? the world. Why's it gotta be different? Cuz she's gone now?
You kiddin' me right now? Cuz you tryin' to remember her in some different colored
NINA: This ain't between you and me. This is between me light?
and her. She left 'em to me. They're mine now. And I ain't NINA: She's my Mama.
givin' that up. This the last piece ... the only piece ... all I DAMON: So the hell what?
got left. I ain't givin' it up ... and you or that sperm donor NINA: 'Course it don't matter to you. You don't know shit that
motherfucker or the rest of the academic and activist world goes on between a mother and a child. You don't know shit
can go to hell if you think you gonna talk me out of it. about parenting.
DAMON: You kiddin' me Nina? Ashanti X was a crack head. A
DAMON: Don't bring my son into this.
fuck.in' crack head!!! And you tryin' to get sentimental like
NINA: What's his birthday?
it mean something to you now. What it mean to you, Nina?
What the hell it do for you but keep you remembering a DAMON: Don't quiz me on this, Nina.
bunch of ghosts?! What it do besides break your fuck.in'\ NINA: What's his favorite color, Damon?
heart again and again? You hated her. You remember that? DAMON: I told you Rene don't hardly let me spend no time
You ain't even respect her.
with him.
NINA: She was sick.
NINA: When a man wants to spend time with his child,
DAMON: Sick on the goddamn pipe. shouldn't be not a goddamn thing that gets in his way.
NINA: Don't talk about her like that. She wasn't one of those DAMON: Really, Nina? Not even a court? Not even a judge?
zombies walking around all skinny and wild eyed. She had Not even the law, right? Cuz all I got to do is make
a problem - yes. But she wasn't no zombie. She was my problems for Rene and I'll never see my son again. Put
Mama, asshole. She was brilliant. me in a court, I'ma lose everytime.Judge see me and she
DAMON: When she wasn't doped up ... which was close to ain't gonna care that I started hustlin' in the first place to
never. And who'd you come cryin' to all them times, Nina? -feed my family. She ain't gonna see that I was tryin' to
Who'd you come cryin to when she stole your laptop and be the best father I could be by makin' sure Rene ain't
sold it for not even half of what you paid? have to worry cuz her b-s call center job didn't pay her
NINA: She was sick. for maternity. Ain't no judge gonna care that I couldn't
get nothin' legit cuz of some time I spent locked up for
DAMON: Who was there for you, Nina? Who held you
stabbing some niggas tryin' to rob me. She gonna see me
while you stayed up the whole night crying about how
as one thing, Nina. The stain in my son's life. That's it.
abandoned and lonely you are. Motherless/fatherless child.
Nightmares about the devil comin' to claim your Mama NINA: That's bullshit, Damon! Make a effort - damn. Call him
and leave you by yourself. Who was down for you and up sometime. So the hell what if you can't pay his Mama
what she's ask.in' for. Why's he gotta suffer for that? Show
brought you in this game? Gave you a stake in some shit so
you wouldn't be nobody's prey no more. So you'd be the up afterschool. Take him to the park. You can muscle and
one in control and runnin' shit. hustle niggas out there tryin' to steal our set and run our
comer, but you can't stand up to your son's mother? Who
NINA: That was almost three years ago. It's different now.
you think you foolin' with that?

48 49
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

DAMON: Who you mad at, Nina? You mad at me and my him? If it wasn't for her fuckin' depression and her broken
son? Or you mad at you? Cuz me and DJ - we cool. He heart and her desperation? He left her Damon! Long
understand I'm his father. He understand me. And I ain't before he got locked up, he walked away from all the deep
pretending to be nobody perfect. I'm a man with a lotta feelings she poured into him cuz the shit had no place in
errors, but I corrected half of 'em just by having him. his movement. You think I'm supposed to turn her legacy
NINA: Having a kid ain't nothin'. Any nigga can do that, over to him so he can shit on her in the afterlife?
Damon. I'm talkin' availability. Reliability. Somebody DAMON: Nina, listen to me here. I'm tellin' you straight up.
around to make you feel sa;::J You can't hold onto this grudge for the rest of your life.
DAMON: DJ is safe with me, Nina. I make sure he's taken care Ashanti ain't live free, Nina. Ain't that what she always
of. Got people lookin' out for him. That's the best I can do used to say? She don't know what free is ... never did. But
right now. ' maybe ... maybe she know it now. And you can let her go.
Beat. NINA releasesan exhaustedsigh. Give them shits up. Give 'em to the man they was intended
for. Maybe that's the peace she get.
DAMON: And you safe with me, too.
NINA: She's my Mama.
NINA: Psshhhh... \
DAMON: And he's your Daddy. They both let you down.
DAMON: You are, Nina. I know you think I be tryin' to gas
NINA: Don't put them in the same boat. They not the same.
>:ou, but that ain't it. I'm too old to be tryin' to play you.
I m too old for all of this. These streets ain't for neither DAMON: Nina, why's this gotta be hard? Why's you and me
one of us no more. I swear to God - if I see another pair gotta be hard? It's simple. Let them pay you back. They
of_shoes _over some telephone wires I'ma lose my fuckin' took from you - a whole lotta years of trouble on your
mmd. Kids do that shit to be stupid now. Don't even .mind. A whole lotta nights of stress - for what? Cuz you
have no significance no more. Never know what it means had to hustle, that's what. Pay your way on your own and
now. Used to know - that's a hot block. Used to know figure out how to survive. And that's you, baby. That's not
somebody got robbed for they sneaks. Now you never them. You still here and alive and survivin' cuz of you. Cuz
know. These kids play by some stupid rules. Codes and -you a bad bitch. And when you runnin' off with me - it's
honor don't mean shit to them. Whose set is whose _ nothin' we can't have. I'ma take care of you. Give you the
don't matter. They runnin' 'round like a bunch of pawns life you been dreamin' of. Lavish life.
on a chessboard and don't even know the shit ain't real. NINA: I don't want no lavish life.
Don't even know it's all a game. Shootin' each other over DAMON: What you want?
whatever. .. not abiding by nobody's laws ... 5-0 or the
NINA: Simple.
streets. They just reckless ... and they're the new leaders of
the corner game. To hell with that. They can have this shit DAMON: What's that mean - simple?
cuz I can't do it, Nina. And I'm not gonna do it. I don't NINA: I'm tired, Damon. You think you more tired of these
want this no more. I want you. That's it. You and me ... and streets than me, but you ain't. I don't want this no more. I
enough to know my son's alright. That's it. never wanted this. What I want? Something easy. Simple.
NINA: And we gonna be alright - how? By stealin' my Mama's I don't need to be part of a revolution. I don't want a
legacy? Givin' it over to a man who left her to fall on her movement or a cause. I don't want a hustle or no fast
face? You think she woulda been an addict if it wasn't for money. I want a home. I want somewhere I can walk

50 51
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

into my space and not have to look over my shoulder or NINA: Damon lemme go.
hold my breath. I want some kids of my own. Lie around DAMON: Say you need me and you gonna do this. Give him
in a house and read 'em children's books by Camille them letters.
Yarbrough or beII hooks. Learn to bake or somethin'. Have
NINA: Damon stop it.
a garden and grow me some vegetables to cook and eat.
DAMON: Say it, Nina. Say you need me and you love me and
Paint the living room on a Saturday. Listen to Nina and
close my eyes and sleep through the night for once in my you gonna get your father over here. You gonna charge
fuckin' life. That's it. I wanna sit in the horizon somewhere him for all those years of disappointment, and you gonna
and watch the sun rise and set. I never even saw a fuckin' make him pay out. Say it, Nina.
sunset! I am not alive here. I am not alive in this chaos - NINA tries to breakfree but DAMON is too strong.He smothersher
you hear me? I do not want this shit no more. in his arms.
DAMON: Then let's get out of it. Together. Finally she releases.
NINA: The fuck are you gonna do, Damon? NINA: I'll do it.
DAMON: I'm gonna love you, Nina. I'm sayin' that as real as \ DAMON: You'll talk to him?
I know how to say it. I know you think I ain't real, but I'm \ NINA: I'll talk to him.
teilin' you this one time ... this one time, I am. I need you. DAMON: And you'll play nice, right?
NINA: You need me to dress in heels and paint my lips and
NINA: I'll play nice.
cover my identity so I can lure animals into your cage. Be
DAMON: Tel1me you need me, baby.
your pretend hooker so we can rob niggas. You don't need
111e. NINA: Damon ...

DAMON: You wrong. I need you for my sanity. I need you DAMON: Tel1me.
cuz you the only woman I understand. I know you. And I NINA: I.. .need you ...
know you need me.
DAMON: Tell me you love me, baby.
NINA: What I need you for?
NINA: I love you.
DAMON: Cuz I'm it, Nina. I'm the only family you got left. I'm DAMON: You mean it, Nina?
around. I'm here. And I've stuck by you. I'm familiar. I'm
NINA: I mean it.
routine. I'm adventure. I'm all that to you, and you know
it. And truth be told, if you ain't want me ... if I ain't think DAMON: Show me.
you needed me just as much as I need you, I'd be outta DAMON kissesNINA on the neck. She grabshim from behindand
here. But I know you do. I know you need me, baby. pulls him to her mouth.
DAivfON goesto NINA. Grabsherfrom behind.She resistshim far He bendsher overthe couch.
a second.
DAMON: I love you too, baby.
NINA: Lemme fuckin' go, Damon. He thrusts.
She strugglesin his arms.He holdsherfirm. Blackout.
DAMON: Say you need me, Nina.
NINA strugglesmore.

52 53
 ~--- ----

DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

r-1-~--,,_,
tti-e..<>• SCENESIX KENYATTA:Your favorite?
(Lights up on NINA in the apartment, making some attempt at NINA shrugs.
straightening.She-move5-the-eouGh-alightly. Workingtowardsomekind KENYATTA:How'd you get into wine?
of visual aesthetic.She's neverdone this before,and it ain't workin'.) NINA: Travel channel.
On the iPodplayer - Nina Simone's
,,,
"LoveMe orLeaveMe'~
~--·-- •. ,.,••_, ~- ·-•--<.·,--.,_. ___ _,_ KENYATTA:Ah. (Beat.}It's a fine spread.
R§.E!:!!!!..9'1!.!.~~ly_
( J/1e..Jii{P:PP.!..a.!.Ul!.bi11.4_q,_1!J£1:.ll. {efOtHl.s
__
later carryinga Pause.NINA looksat KENYAITA. He looksat her.
tray of crackersand cheese.Some wine glassesand wine:7t's a bit sad
NINA: What - you want me to serve it?
in presentation,but it's trying.She's trying.)
KENYATTA:No. Not at all. (Beat.) Can I pour you some?
( She setsthe?E._
on_f!:_..
makeshift.coffee
tablebefore':!:!r.
Probablysomeboxes
with a clothoverit. NINA:Yeah.

___
Then shegoesto,..,_,,_..,
a desk. Ope_ns
draw__er.
PyJls out a. gun.
·- ,
cracksopenthe bottle.P9ursa coupleof glasses._)., l)., , • "':
KE_l'fX-1Tf:A
KENYATTA:Shall we? .', .~/,,, ~- _l, /,,,
Slips gun into !h_~_arch
of her.}OWl!r}_g.ck.
Shieldsit with her clothes. ... ,...
,\

t\·l.t.!"{'r<"·•; .i NINA shrugsagain.,They bothsip. Silence. ,>;~.. , I -7_ .i:-~~

o/t
;~:,..' . "\·
i
~{{!._on
th~_couc~.
Tapsfoot. Waits. \
.,_,_ ~,\1:
...l:\..11-\U~: S,t_a_nds.
L9,2__!g_
at self in mirror.Fidgetswith clothes.Hair. Goesback KENYATTA:It's very good. Wow .
\., l.J to_s_ofa.
Sits. ·- ·· " NINA: I know.
Waits.Qqor bu;:g,es.
NINA looksat it. Waits. NINA gua]es moreof her wine.
.§.11:z;::
again. She inhales.Shakesher head. Tapsfoot. What thefack is KENYATTA:Thank you for agreeing to meet with me again .
she doing? Why is she nervous? ,.:.1;
. .),,,,), __ NINA:Yep.
IJoor bums again. She risesslowly. Goesoverto intercom.P,ressesthe KENYATTA:I know we didn't get off to a very good start
qy_tj()n.
f:.ong_!Juz;::.
_ · ·· · 1s,-' • ·
before -
NINA goesbackand sits. Waits. Waits. Ta~sfoot. Eats a cracker'.
Sighs. NINA:Yep.
Knock on the door.': Pause.Air. Tension.
NINA: It's open! KENYATTA:This is one of my favorite Nina Simone songs.
r:,.... · ~::·c'
KENYATTAenterscautiously.A bag on his arm. NINA eyesherfather skeptically.
KENYATTA:Hello.
NINA: That right?
NINA doesn'trisetogreethim. She simply nodsand motionstoward KENYATTA:That's right.
the emptyseat adjacentto the couch.
NINA: Why's that?
Kf_lvYATFAnods and takes the seat.
KENYATTA:Just... upbeat but still has a weight to it. Still
She slidesoverthe wine tray. has fire. That woman always had fire. Strong and
NINA: Some wine or whatever. Cheese and crackers. Ritz. uncompromising ... in her music.
Cheap shit but it's all we got. Better stuff on the food NINA: So ... you wanted to talk.
network, but whatever. This ain't the food network. (Beat.)
KENYATTA:I did.
That's good wine though. Ethiopian honey wine.
NINA: Then talk.
----KENYA'JTAli.&_~he~01tleand readsthe label.
54 55
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

KENYA1TA:Not sure where to begin just yet. KENYATTA:But that's not why we chose the name. To
NINA: Cut to the point. duplicate the pain. We chose it for liberation. Because she
KENYATTA:The point is convoluted. was able to turn her madness into power. That's what we
wanted. That's all we wanted. For you.
NINA: Gimme the highlights.
NINA: I know how I got my name.
KENYATTA:You were so young when I -
NINA:Left? KENYATTA:Justthought you might want to know why.
NINA: I know.
KENYKITA:So to speak, I guess.
NINA: I was five. KENYATTA:It was me. My choice.

KENYATTA:I know. NINA:And?

KENYATTA:I just. I wanted you to know.
NINA: I'm not five anymore.
NINA: I know.
KENYATTA:No, you're grown. Much more than I expected.
KENYATTA:Okay.
NINA: You lost track of the years?
Pause.
KENYATTA:That's not what I mean. But yes, I guess I did\
now that you mention it. /mNA:
So let's get to it.
NINA: It's alright. So did I. KENYATTA:To what?
KENYATTA:I just. .. I guess I just. .. hoped for more. NINA: Why you want these letters. How much you're willing
to pay. Let's talk. That's why you're here, right? Let's talk.
NINA: (Laughing.)Hoped for more for who? Me? Or you?
KENYATTA:Both, maybe. KENYATTA:You're willing to share them?

NINA: Yeah, well ... NINA: I'm willing to talk.

Slightpause. KENYATTA:There are things that are too complicated for

simple words. Not without some connecting. Some
KENYATTA:You know the thing about her, though - understanding first.
NINA: Who's that?
NINA: You come here to bullshit? Or you come to negotiate?
KENYK1~rA:
Nina Simone.
KENYATTA:That's all you think this is? Bullshit?
NINA: Un hunh.
NINA: Fuck else should I think?
KENYATTA:She was a rebel deep in her soul. It wasn't a cause KENYATTA:It's been so many years.
or an act of self-righteousness. It was a need that cost her
NINA:And?
dearly. That's what they don't tell you. She was full of
brilliance and torment. It comes with a price. The beauty KENYATTA:Are you always like this?
and power. That awareness. It's not a quietness. It's a NINA: Excuse me?
madness raging in you. Dancing until it explodes. That's KENYATTA:Are you?
what it is.
NINA: Like what?
NINA: Un hunh.
KENYATTA:Hard. To the core. Tight and unforgiving. Is this
. ?
your constant? Or your emergency reservorr.

56 57
 DOMINIQUEMORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

NINA: What? NINA: I'm not one for false promises or putting my dreams in
KENYATTA: I'm just wondering whether or not to take this other folks' hands. But he's consistent. About that, anyway.
personally. It's hard to tell. KENYATTA: He says you're both in love.
NINA: You think I give enough of a fuck about you to change NINA: Yeah well ... he's consistent about that too.
my whole persona?
KENYATTA: You've known him a long time.
KENYATTA: No. I don't.
NINA: Long enough. He's a hustler. I can respect that.
NINA: Then what are you asking stupid questions for? KENYATTA: He's well read.
KENYATTA: I'm incredulous.
NINA: I look like I have time to entertain fools?
NINA: Incredulous? Oh what - I'm not what you imagined? KENYATTA: Not particularly.
KENYATTA: Not really.
NINA: Damon is a hard hustler. Book and street smart. No
NINA: No? What did you imagine? Please, enlighten me. degree but a degree don't make you smart. It's a lot of
Thought I was gonna run into your arms and hug you like educated idiots out there ... and most of 'em runnin' the
some disillusioned five year old? I'd pull on your shii:_tand country. But he knows his place in the world. He knows if
ask you to take me to get some ice cream and read m~,a you come into this world at the bottom, you gotta get your
bedtime story? hands dirty in order to survive. That's what Damon is.
KENYATTA: No. That's his sex appeal. Survival.
NINA: What'd you want? Me to introduce you to my husband KENYATTA: That's what swept you off your feet, is it? His
and our kids and show you I was doing just fine on survival.
my own. That all the shit they say about single-parent NINA: I don't get swept off my feet. That's what makes ~,
households ain't real? There's no reason to feel any guilt 1!:~c~ssary.,Tome. ··
because we would've been who we are, with or without KENYATTA~ He got you into your ... trade?
your presence, and we can pick up the baton and keep
NINA: My trade? (Laughs.)Oh I get it. You want to know if you
running like nothing ever happened. No penalties. No d-qs.
should blame him for turning me into this? Your greatest
That's what you thought?
disappointment? Don't. I'm nobody's puppet. I create my
KENYATTA: No.
own destiny. I came to him. I was looking for a hustle.
Pause.
Q.lfKENYATTA- !ookingappalled.
So this is you.
What you look so surprised for? You think books is free?
NINA: This is me. You think college tuition just falls from the sky? Not when
KENYATTA: You'll be moving. Traveling the world then, I your Mama is addicted and your daddy's in jail. Nah. You
suppose? want an education, you do what's necessary to stay in the
NINA: That's what he told you? 1;.,, ,,. ,,,, game. It's a lot of straight A students hustlin' to pay for
those books. Sellin' dime bags don't put you in debt like
KENYATTA: In so many details, yes.
· Uncle Sam. Department of Education ... they're the real
NINA: At least he's consistent.
gangstas. Nigga on the corner ain'tgot shit on them.
KENYATTA: What's that?
KENYATTA: And the graduation plan? What was that?

58 59
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

NINA: No graduation. No completion. (Beat.) She took a tum NINA: Depends on what you got.
for the worse. I dropped out. End of story. KENYATTA: I don't have much.
KENYATTA: She was unhealthy. NINA: That's not a good way to start a negotiation.
NINA: She was a hopeless romantic. Thought somebody was KENYATTA: What are you asking for?
gonna return and save her from herself. But they never NINA: Twenty thousand.
did ... did they?
KENYATTAlaughs.
KENYATTA: You blame me. I understand. It's logical.
KENYATTA: I look like I have twenty thousand dollars to give
NINA: (Laughssnidely.)You always like this?
you?
KENYATTA: Like what?
NINA: No one ever looks like they have it to give. I read
NINA: Didactic. Practical. Pulled together by fronts. beneath the surface.
KENYATTA: By fronts? KENYATTA: I don't have that kind of money.
NINA: Talk without no §_elin__g.
No anger. No nothin'.Just NINA: But you have some kind of money. You wouldn't come
logical and calm and cool. That's you? over here empty-handed. What's in that bag? Books?
KENYATTA: Not fronts. \ KENYATTA: No.
NINA: No? What then? This is you bein' honest? This is you NINA: I didn't think so.
sittin' here pretending that everything I'm saying isn't KENYATTA: I brought something. Not twenty-thousand dollars.
pissing you the hell off or scratching your skin some? But something you might find valuable.
Maybe drawing a little blood? Or are you the type of nigga
NINA: Only thing I value is money. Everything else breaks,
to bleed and pretend the shit don't hurt?
wears off or dies on you.
KENYATTA: (Angrily.)I'm not the type of nig -
KENYATTA: Some things resurrect the dead.
Beat. KENYATTAstops himself Fumes silently.Sig_1Y!__~~
s!J!!:f...~j_t
off ·-frKENYATTAgJe!!_o_the bag.lf.epulls o~t a photo:Loo!!__a~i~fa_ra_
·---- (Watches
NINA: Oh shit. .. there it is ... a spark of somethin'.
- 7?1Qment.
l[_anµ,s
it to NINA.She takes it reluctantly.
NINA: What's this?
KENYAlTAfume.)There's a lot of shit under there ain't it?
KENYATTA: Under what? KENYATTA: Your mother.
NINA: Don't look like my Mama.
NINA: That invisible cloa~J
KENYATTA: I know. She used to hate this pie. Had her hair in
Beat. NINAsmiles. Sh/s;~~esherfirst realpoint. KENYATTA
sighs
heavily.Triesa differenttactic. curls. Not in her signature 'fro.
NINA: Where'd you get this?
KENYATTA: So you lied about the letters.
KENYATTA: I took it. Long time ago. Oakland. Sittin' on the
NINA: I didn't say that.
steps of her grandmother's porch. Polaroid camera. Bad
KENYATfA: You have them here.
quality photo. But her smile leaps out at you anyway,
NINA: I didn't say that yet either. doesn't it?
KENYATTA: You don't have to say it. I'd just like to know what NINAfalls quiet. Staresat thepie.
gets through that shell of yours. What are you looking for?

60 61
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

Yeah, I kept that. Held onto it through my ... time away ... NINA: I look like a shadow. Braids sticking out of my head ...
(Laughsto herselfsilently.)... Mama did my hair like that...
KENYATIA1ig__s_~acki7!tq_
th~~a!J.Pulls out anotherpie. Smilesat it.
KENYATTA: She used to love this pie. Called you her sunset
This one though ... much better quality. Taken with a
.35mm Kodak. baby. You liked that...so did I.. .

!~-
lf._ebands th.epie to NINA. ~he tak_~s NINA'seyesdart overto the bag.
NINA: This my Mama? NINA: How many of these you got? Brought me a bag full of
memories?
KENYATfA: That's you.
KENYATTA: I heard your things were taken, so -
NINAlooksat KENYATTAincredulously.
)-NINA: So you thought you could soften me up with a trip
NINA: What?
down memory lane.
KENYATTA: Along the coast in San Fran. You were about
KENYATTA: I thought I could share some things with you that
two years old then. I took you with me. On a drive. You
you'd want to see. There's a whole box of them. Don't
wanted to know where the sun goes when it disappears. So
have an album or anything. But you could fish through ...
I went to show you. Chased the sun with you.
take a look at some things ...
NINAlooksat thepicture in confusion.
\ NINA: Not bad.
NINA: I never ... This is ... This is a lie. I never saw a slillset.
KENYATTA: What's that?
KENYATTA: You did. That day.
NINA: Your hustle. Not bad. Pictures tug at the heart. Say a
f!!!f_A_ thepifture,.ln spite of herself,sheis taken by thephoto.
st_ud_iex lotta shit can't be said. I get it. It's a good effort.
Its splendor.Filled with colorand warmth.
KENYATTA: Hustle?
NINA: I don't remember this.
NINA: Thought you could come up in here, fuck me up with
KENYATTA: I guess you wouldn't. (Beat.) I pulled over the some beautiful shit and I'd be wide open, right? What you
first place I saw sand along the shore. Pulled my car on don't know about me is that I don't get open anymore.
top of it. Sat you on the hood. You just stared at the sun. Those questions you say you couldn't answer? I stopped
First time I ever heard you so silent. A two year old with looking for somebody to answer that shit for me. Life goes
nothing to say. That was worth a picture, I thought. .. by with a bunch of confusion and impossible moments that
NINAis quiet.Staresat thepie in awe.A wave of emotioncontained nobody can explain. So I stopped giving a fuck. Long time
in her eyes. ago.
Beat. KENYATTA: I don't believe that.
KENYATTA: I guess you wouldn't remember that ... NINA: I don't care what you believe.
NINA: I don't ever remember being alone with you. KENYATTA: You loved your mother. You can't not-give-a-fuck
KENYATTA: Sometimes. I wasn't just. .. I would take you and love. The two things are mutually exclusive. One
places. Sometimes. cancels the other out. You either have a heart or you don't.
Can't do both.
NINA: The sky ... how's an orange sun make the sky purple?
KENYATTA: Magic, I guess. Those are the kind of questions I
N'ir:iA:Don't tell me what I can do.
could never answer for you. KENYATTA: I'm telling you the one thing I have the answer to.

62 63
 SUNSETBABY
DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU

NINA: You don't have any answers where I'm concerned. The NINA: Bullshit. I'm not talking about them scrap pages of

k~y ~o,me is b~ied with my Mama. 'Less you gain' grave- your ideas and meditations while you were locked up and
diggrn , you rmght as well let that shit go. gettin' your brain swollen with information on politics and
philosophies and whatever. I'm not talking about your
KENYATTA: I can't let it go.
intellectual masturbation on a fuckin' piece of prison paper.
NINA: And why's that? I'm talking reciprocity. I'm talking speaking from the
KENYATTA: You're my daughter. core of your gotdamn heart instead soundin' like a fuckin'
NINA: Don't call me that. activist robot.
KENYATTA: I don't blame you for hating me. KENYATTA:You don't know what you're talking about.
NINA: Who do you blame, exactly? NINA: Fuck you - I don't know. I know her better than you
ever will. I listened to her pine over your worfuless ass.
KENYATTA: There are a lot of things you don't understand.
Listened to her talk about what she thought made you
NINA: That makes two of us.
such a gotdarm1 hero. How you stood up for niggas gettin'
KENYATTA: I gave up some things, I know. Some important railroaded by the justice system, how you stood up for
things in this fight. anybody beirig brutalized by the cops, how you protested
NINA: I don't give a fuck about your fight. corporations helping to fund apartheid, how you did all
fimNYATTA: You lose intimacy. Nothing is ever intimate.
this shit for the whole gotdarnn free world. But when she
Intimacy makes targets out of the people y~love. Do you told you she loved you, what you do hunh? When she told
understand that? It makes family a liability. These are the you she wanted you to settle the fuck down, ease up on the
fight and be with her, what you do, hunh? You stand up for
things you lay on the line or give up if you're willing to die
for progress. that shit? You leave the cause for her? Hunh?

NINA: Fuck your progress! This is your progress, nigga. Me. KENYATTA:It wasn't possible.
) NINA: Cause you're a bullshit muthafucka. That's why it
Here! I'm your fuckin' progress. This is what you achieved.
Shit. Deal with that, nigga. Deal with the sacrificial fuckin' wasn't possible. Can free the whole world and fuck over
lamb to your better world. And what is better, hunh? What the woman who was the backbone to your movement.
the fuck did you achieve? My Mama died with a broken KENYATTA:(Loudlyand angrily.)I said you don't know what
heart waitin' on your progress.:_]' you're talking about damnit!
KENYATTA: That isn't what I wanted. KENYATTA'S growlisstartling.It is thefirstpeek of becomingundone.
NIN~: This ain't about gettin' what you want. It's about dealing NINA, a bitjarred, watcheshim cautiously.
with tl1e shit you get. KENYATTA:They shot up our office.
KENYATTA: You think I was her enemy. I wasn't. NINA: I know that.
NINA: No. You were the muhfucka who wouldn't throw her a KENYATTA:No. You don't know. They shot up our
damn bone. You want these letters so bad? These letters headquarters. And one of the young brothers we'd been
written from my Mama's bleeding heart? Why'd you never working with on his case ... Antonio Marks ... he was
write her? killed. Fourteen years old and killed by the cops. We were
KENYATTA: I wrote her. devastated. The whole organization.

64 65
 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU SUNSETBABY

I
NINA:I know the story. Youngest member to be killed. It's in KENYATTA:I can't do this.
tl1e books. It's in the old articles she kept. I know. NINA: Do what?
KENYATTA:..Ashanti_was beyond devastated. She hit a low. KENYATTA:I didn't come here to fight about this again.
A depression that nothing could get her out of. We were NINA: What'd you come here for?
being infiltrated by undercovers. Informants that were
KENYATTA:I came here for ...
passing info to government auiliorities. People you iliought
were your broiliers were showing ilieir horns. Trust was NINA: Letters.
broken. We all felt fatigue and abused. And we don't KENYATTA:
To negotiate.
know who it started with, but one of those fake FBI-posin' NINA: Wiili some pictures?
brotl1ers brought some dope in. Was being passed around KENYATTA: With money. H '<-·-,, .L,
__
to some of the members. After Tony's death, it was prime
time to get high. Your Mama was depressed. Couldn't get NINA'.!-
eyebrowraises.
it out of her mind. And she slipped. That was her first time. NINA: You got money all of a sudden?
She slipped and got high. KENYATTA:I don't have twenty thousand dollars.
NINA:You're lying. She never did nothin' before we moved NINA: How much you got? :...::G-t.,
f,_,{.)..,l. f'"
out here. KENYAITAgoesoverto the bag.He pulls out a bloik•ofcash.
\ ---------···-·-•····-
-·'"· ···,.. ...
KENYATTA: You're wrong. It was a problem for aw~le. --/(-·KENYATTA:This is five iliousand dollars cash.
But she told me she wanted to stop, so I helped her.- '·•
NINA: Five thousand? That's all you got?
We moved out here and started working with some of
tl1e Harlem members. And she had kicked it. She was KENYATTA:That's more than you have now, isn't it?
doing alright. But she wasn't ilie only one depressed. I NINA: You know what iliese publishers are offering?
lost brothers in ilie fight. Best friends became enemies KENYATTA:I don't.
because you couldn't trust anybody anymore. Once the
NINA: Ten gs advance. And ilien a nice lil' percentage on all
org was infiltrated, we were never a unit again. It was too
. royalties.
dangerous to be vulnerable. Love became a liability. It cost
too much to be open. It meant someone's life. Or ilie life of KENYATTA:But you haven't taken ilie deal.
the movement. NINA:Yet.
NINA:And iliat's all you gave a damn about. Movement at all KENYATTA:You won't.
fuckin' costs, right? NINA: If I can sell to you, I can sell to them.
KENYATTA:No. We had you. KENYATTA:
You won't.
NINA: I know that. NINA: You don't know what ilie fuck I would do.
KENYATTA:
Then we had you. KENYATTA:You won't, because iliey're not for everyone's
NINA: I know that. eyes ... are they ...
And I...
KENYATTA: NINA: You don't know what iliey're for.
KENYAITAfallssilent. KENYATTA:You won't sell iliem because it's not what she
NINA:And you, what? wants. Is it?

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DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU

NINA falls silent. Trumped. NINA: What's the problem? It's a simple request. Easiest shit I
could offer. Leave the five gs on the table. Say the shit you
KENYATTA: She left them to you ... to share. (Beat.) I just need
keep bitin' back. Take the letters and move the hell on.
to read them.
KENYATTA:
There's nothing ... I've said what I've come to say.
NINA: For what? You don't want them for money. You don't
want them to sell. What - you writing a book? What you NINA: Not good enough.
want them for?! KENYATTA:
What's not good enough?
KENYATTA:
For myself. NINA: You. Shirking. Dodging responsibility. Rurmin' scared.
NINA:WHY? Walkin' outta here with the prize while the cat got your
tongue. Easy nigga shit. Not good enough.
BECAUSE I. ..
KENYATTA:
KENYATTA:I don't have anything to say.
KENYAITA chokes.A small wave of sadness.NINA staresat him...
seeingthroughhim,for once... NINA: That's the problem.
NI~A: You can't say it, can you? KENYATTA:
y_guwant to punish me.
KENYAITA is silent. NINA: ¥aybe..
NINA:You never could say it, could you? Couldn't say it KENYATTA:
Well you're honest.
when she was alive. Can't even say it now that she's dead. NINA: Cut the practical shit.
(Beat.) There's more under that cloak than I thought ain't KENYATTA:I don't know what you want me to say.
1"t?. ' '
NINA: Why'd you leave her?
Moresilence.KENYAITA and NINA glareat eachother.
KENYATTA:I didn't leave her.
KENYAITA tries afinal tactic.
NINA: Fuckin' liar.
KENYATTA: There's five thousand dollars. You're planning to
KENYATTA:I'm not lying!
leave, right? That's a good start. I'm sure you've got a stash
saved. Take it and find out all the answers for yourself. And NINA: Then say it.
leave the letters to me. ' . KENYATTA:I didn't -
NINA: You want these letters so bad? Then say it.. NINA: The truth!
KENYATTA:
Say what? KENYATTA:I never lied!
NINA:Whatever's got your tongue. Say it and they're yours. NINA: Tell me that shit that makes you scared to breathe.
KENYATI'A:I don't know what you want me to say. KENYATTA:Nina -
NINA: Yeah you do. I want you to say it. Speak that shit out NINA: Tell me you fucked up. Tell me your heart is a gotdamn
loud. Look me in my face and tell me everything my volcano right now. Tell me you are boiling over with
Mama wanted to hear. Say it and they're yours. regret and guilt. Tell me you're a worthless bitch. Tell me
KENYAITA laug'!!!.__ty_
himself, incredulously.He looks at NINA, you could've loved my Mama enough to satisfy her every
speechless. ·- --·•- .. addiction but you ran like a coward. Tell me you hate
yourself.
KENYATTA:Nina -

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DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU
· .. /
No answerfrom KENYATTA.
·NINA: Tell me you couldn't send a happy birthday card. Tell
me you hide behind the people. Tell me you ain't shit NINA: I knew you were a better hustler than you let on.
without a cause. Tell me you don't know how to love, all NINA digs in the bagmore.FI71c~_4igitaZ._1!1-.~m_o,ry_
~°Ids.
you know how to do is fight. Tell me you're scared as hell. NINA: More surprises? What's this?
Tell me you don't know what the fuck or who the fuck you
KENYATTA is silent. NINA raisesthegun more.
are. Tell me that.
NINA: Answer me.
KENYATTA: Nina, I...
KENYATTA: Video cards.
NINA: Say that shit gotdamnit!
NINA: For what? You got some footage on here? Something
KENYATTA staresat NINA - dismayed.
else you think you can show me about my Mama?
KENYATTA: (A whisper.)What do you want from me? Something you thought woulda made me tree sap in your
Pause.Silence.NINA rages.Eyesso redshe'sblind with it. palm?
NINA: What do I want from you? KENYATTA: No.

-
NINA jjels for
.. -- -----.'
the gun in her lower
"'-~-,,,,~---~--·----- . -
back.Shepulls
·- ----··- -
it out andpoints
. --~·~ NINA: Whatis it then?
~ het ~_t_h.~i:; KENYATTA: A fair trade.
NINA: Child support. NINA: Fair trade? (Laughs.}You still talkin' letters? You nothin'
KENYATTA inhales.Surprised,but notshocked.Not scared.Resolved. if not persistent.
KENYATI'A: You're going to rob me.
'-- NINA puts the moneyand the cardsback in the bag. She holds up
NINA: It's what I do. Sell drugs and rob niggas. I told you that the additionalstash.
shit from day one. (Shift.) You really thought you could NINA: How much is this?
come up in here and soften me up after all these years? KENYATTA: Five grand. rt...._,~,.,~~
You really think I let you in here with a plan to hand over
NINA: See there? Another five gs? I knew you had more rJ~~li
these letters? You been off the streets that long?
money than you were claimin'. I got x-ray vision. I see
KENYATTA: You hate me this much, hunh? through that cloak all day. You not the type to put your
NINA doesn't answer.She movestoward the money, but keeps the faith in a bank, right? Keep everything in arm's reach. This
gun pointed at herfather. ten gs probably just a quarter of yo' life savings, right?
NINA: Kick that bag over here. NINA puts the stash into the bag.Zips it up. Stands. Staresat her
KENYATTA: Nina - father.
NINA: Kick it! NINA: I.break y_2urJte_.µ,:t,_d911'tl?
KENYATTA obliges.NINA movesto it slowly.Opensit up. Seesanother Pause.
stack of cash.Pulls it out. KENYATTA:):~~
NINA: What's this? You was holding out on me?
KENYATTA is silent.
-
Beat. A momentherein thetruth. A waveof emotionpassesthrough
them both. Theystareat eachother...
NINA: Or were you waiting to make that the cherry on top? NINA: You know somethin'? I think I must have a little bit
Last touch to sweeten the deal? of you in me ... cuz I can't say it neither. Not for real.

71
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 SUNSETBABY
DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU • •') f\ ' " ?
o.x..~~-
To Damon. I say it, but it's only to get by. Be what he SCENESEVEN
thinks he needs me to be. But when I say it, nothin' in Spotlightup on KENYATD!. Not the samemoment.Not evennecessarily
me stops. Nothin' moves or flutters or pulsates. It's dead after.Justan isolatedmomentin time. He speaksinto his camera.
in here, I think. Like you, right? You and me ... must be KENYATTA: Nina. Nina. Nina. Nina. Nina.
dead somewhere to never be able to say it. Right? (Pause.)
Beat.
Right?
I named you. It was me. I did. Proudly. I did.
KENYATTA: I...
Beat.
NINA: But why? Why we can't, hunh? Why we so dead?
I held you in my palm when you were born. You fit. In.
KENYATTA staresintohis daughter'.sface.He is speechless,
but saying
My. Palm.
everythingin the silence.
Beat.
For a strangemoment,NINA is almostlistening.
One night you peed. On me. A baby. Fell asleep. Both
Then instantly,she can't anymore. of us. I woke up with you in my arms. Soaked and wet. I
NINA: (Calm and resolved.)Get out. didn't ... even get mad ...
KENYA.TIA: Nina, please - Beat.
NINA: Get the fuck out. What could I be? To you? To your mother? Locked away?
KENYATTA walks to the door.Slowly andpainfully. Always ready to be locked away? Or worse?
Suddenlyhe stops. '' Beat. ~iv
His heart in his throat. What kind of father ... man ... can sleep knowing his family ~~ ~
KENYA.TIA: (Breathlessly.)
I don't know why. is ... un-protected. Un-provided for. Unless - e[2:?Hii,&,JJ;
KENYATTA opensthe door,and leavesbehindit. Beat.
NINAcontinuespointing the gun to the doorfar a sfrangelylong You have to release them. You have to be released. You
momentafter. ' have to let them go. Let them let you go. Or you will
never. .. make .. .it...inside ... or out there ...
Then she walks, trance-like,to her zPod.
Nina Simone's "Don't" Let Me Be Misunderstood".
She sits on the couch.
~"'-
...,,-,-~...._.. ...,,...
Beat.
I can ... I can deal with violence. Violent revolution is
sometimes necessary. Sometimes.
Staresout into space.
Beat.
Seesthepicture of herselfin the sunset.
How do you deal with loving ... a woman ... you couldn't
Picksit up and stares. save ...
And stares.And stares.And stares... Beat.
This is not my apology. I could never ... Wouldn't know
where to begin ...
Beat.

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 SUNSETBABY
DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU

This is all I know, Nina. Speaking. Writing. Ideas. Pulls out a videocard.Holds it in his handssolidly.
Activism.Justice. Meditation. Pondering. Puts it in his backpack.
Beat. Lights riseon NINAin a separateworld... holdingthe videocard...
This is all I know. She looksoverat KENYATTA
in his world- as if watchingthevideo.
Beat. J1,ehearthe repl,ayof the last momentof KENYATE4's
recording:
I want you to have the world. Was trying to give you the KENYATTA'SVOICE: I am giving you who I am, Nina. This is
world. Skylines. Sunsets. Life. Beauty. Highways. Bays. all ofme.
Liberation. Lightsfade on K.ENYATE4.
Beat. NINAwatcheshim disappear.
Not this. Not harsh. Not broken glass and bullets and dope. She exhales.Maybewipesa tear.Maybejust a soulfulbreath.
Beat. Lightsfade.
I want you to have the world. Musicispwyed. ''Misunderstood" by Common
Beat. (samplingNina Simone).
This is all I know, Nina. This is all I've ever known. Lights comeupfull on NINAin her apartment.
Not access to the right words in the right moment. But Shegoesto herfather's bookbag.She shakesit free of everything.
meditations. Lots of meditations. It is who I am.
\ Gathersthe pictures. The video cards.Puts them on her person
Beat. somewhere.Gathersthe money.Opensa suitcase.Pulls outall of her
I am giving you who I am. Recorded. The truth. Me accoutrements (Make-up.Hair. Thigh-highboots.)Lifts the lining.
in totality. So you can know. So you can move on. Fast Hides the moneyinside.Closessuitcase.
forward. Rewind if you need. Review for understanding. Then she walks overto thepainting. She takesit off the wall and
Study. Edit. But please don't erase. Please don't. .. peels the backing.
Beat. The stash of letters.
Revolution is change. Change is self. I am still on the She takesthem andputs them in herfather's bookbag.
frontlines ... fighting to get there. I may die in this. It may
Sets the bagoff to the side.
not happen in my lifetime. I will die behind this change of
self. Beginsto dollherselfup with theMake-up.Hair. Thigh-highboots.
Beat. The buzzerto the door.
I will die for you ... NINApressesit without askingquestions.
Beat. Shefinishesthe last touchesof her wardrobe.
I don't know how to write a love letter. All I know is this. DAMONenters.
Beat. DAMON: He turned eight today.

I am giving you who I am, Nina. This is all of me. Silence.

KENYATTA
stopsthe recorder. DAMON: Eight years old. Eight years since I helped the doctor
cut his cord. Eight birthdays and eight Chucky Cheese

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DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU

NINA:I think you a survivor.

parties and eight candles on a fuckin' cake. Seven times I
remembered. The eighth one ... I fuckin' forgot. DAMON:You believe that?
NINA looksat DAMON. Says nothing.Puts on the redlipstick. NINA: Goddamn right.
DAMON:I could say Rene set me up with that one but fuck Beat. NINA goesbackto gettingdressed.
it. Does it matter? I could say she usually calls to tell me DAMON:So your ol' man left you a bunch of pictures. Old
the plan ... usually asks me to buy the cake or book the videos. That's it?
arcade or foot the bill. This time she let me bake. Planned NINA stops.Looksat DAMONstoicly.
everything behind my back. Didn't ask me for shit Knew
NINA:That's it.
I'd forget. Had too much on my mind this time. She was
countin' on that. Knew I was plannin' to move away with DAMON:No money. Nothin'?
you. Started arguing with me again. Been broke up over NINA:That's it.
two years and she still on that jealous shit. Wouldn't let me DAMON:You sure that's it Nina?
speak to DJ no time this whole week. Everyday I call, she NINA staresat DAMON. Unflinched.
got it so he's too busy. "In the bath" "Doin' his homework"
"Visiting his cousins" "Asleep in the bed". I let the shit roll NINA:Yep.
<=t::
..
off. Know we working these last few deals. Figure I can Pause.Tension.
focus and then holler at my son when I'm outta this shit for DAMON:I got this feelin' Nina. Gnawing feeling in my gut. ..
-·~- I'm about to be an island. No London Eye. No Trafalgar
good. See him with a clean conscience for once. And what
the fuck I do? I forget his eighth birthday. Day he ain't Square.Just an island on my own. Vacant and empty.
never gettin' back. Not neither one of us. And I showed Irrelevant to my son. Irrelevant to you.Just baking in the
up to his party late. Shit was over. No present. No nothin'. sun with nobody to occupy me. Worthless and ain't shit.
And still he came and hugged me. Like I was the gift. I was DAMON walks overto NINA needfully.Grabsherfor dearlife.
the muhfuckin' gift. (Pause.)I ain't never felt so unworthy.
DAMON:Don't let me bake Nina.
But that's my mans, right? Devoted son regardless of my
NINA turns toface DAMON. Shegrabshisface. Meaningfully.
bullshit. (Pause.)I wonder when he playin' this shit back
later in life, will he remember I was late. Will he remember NINA:You always gonna be a survivor.
I forgot and showed up empty-handed. Or will he just She kisseshim passionately.He surrendersto her.
remember I was there. Thensuddenlyshepulls away. Grabshergun.
Beat. DAMONwalks overto NINA. Puts his arm aroundher waist.
NINA: Let's go make this last deal.
DAMON:What you thinkin' baby?
Blackout.
NINA: Nothin'.Just gettin' ready.
DAMON:Rene said I ain't shit. Ain't shit but a low-life
muthafucka. Ain't worth a damn as a man or a daddy. She
probably tellin' that shit to DJ too. (Beat.)I wonder how
long til' he believe it. .. (Beat.)You think I ain't shit Nina?
NINA turns to DAMON. For thefirst time she looksat him with
compassion.Sheputs hisface in her hands.

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