Jordan E. Cooper. Photo: Beowulf Sheehan.

Jordan E. Cooper is an OBIE Award–winning playwright and performer who was most recently chosen to be one of OUT Magazine’s “Entertainer of the Year.” Last spring he had a sold out run of his play Ain’t No Mo’, a New York TimesCritics Pick. Jordan created a pandemic-centered short film called “Mama Got A Cough” that’s been featured in National Geographicand was named “Best of 2020” by the New York Times. He is currently filming The Ms. Pat Show, an R-rated “old school” sitcom he created for BET+, which will debut later this year. He can also be seen as “Tyrone” in the final season of FX’s Pose.

An excerpt from Ain’t No Mo’:

ZAMATA: Free?

WOMAN: (To TV) Bitch said free.

ZAMATA: What free?

WOMAN: (To TV) What country?

NEWSWOMAN: Land of the free.

WOMAN: (To TV) What free?

ZAMATA: What land?

NEWSWOMAN: This land.

WOMAN AND ZAMATA: Has free?

NEWSWOMAN: We’re all free.

ZAMATA: To do what?

NEWSWOMAN: Be free.

ZAMATA: Says who?

NEWSWOMAN: The free.

ZAMATA: Didn’t you report on the Damien Martin shooting?

WOMAN: She did! (To Trisha) They’re talking about your man over here, girl.

NEWSWOMAN: Yes.

ZAMATA: Was he free?

NEWSWOMAN: Yes.

WOMAN: (To TV) To die! They killed his ass too.

DAMIEN: Another way is coming!

TRISHA: Would you stop?

WOMAN: (To Trisha) What? He dead ain’t he?

DAMIEN: I’ll stop when you listen. I know you feel what’s right.

ZAMATA: And what about that woman they strangled last night?

WOMAN: Was she free?

NEWSWOMAN: Yes.

ZAMATA: And the baby they slaughtered last week?

NEWSWOMAN: Who is ‘They’?

WOMAN: They!

TRISHA: Them.

ZAMATA: The land.

TRISHA, ZAMATA AND WOMAN: The free