Satori Shakoor: Menopause Uncensored in Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale

What does it mean to turn a deeply personal, often taboo experience into powerful art?

In this episode of The Color Between the Lines, journalist Esther Dillard sits down with award-winning storyteller, comedian, and social entrepreneur Satori Shakoor. From touring with George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic as one of the iconic Brides of Funkenstein to creating Detroit’s Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers®, Shakoor has built a career on telling bold, authentic stories.

Now, she’s taking the stage with her one-woman show, Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale — a raw, funny, and fearless journey through her 12 years of menopause. In this interview, Shakoor shares why she uses humor and storytelling to break silence around women’s health, how activism and art intersect, and why this conversation matters for women everywhere.

🎭 Watch Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale now streaming on Amazon Prime

https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Menopausal-Fatale-Jonathan-Jewell-Chatten/dp/B0DWSQPX28/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3B5UKZLLGJ1SH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.rTnC9AgYBVRyfyZFta4vGIn_VPuZmBcAmr-5KDgmCdE.gC9pBGX6iyAixrFFHtYQVCMybTE_S4yD4NPXk-o5q48&dib_tag=se&keywords=Confessions+of+a+Menopausal+Femme+Fatale&qid=1757783760&sprefix=confessions+of+a+menopausal+femme+fatale%2Caps%2C109&sr=8-1

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Transcript

0:11

I didn't know what was happening to me. I didn't recognize myself. I was having heart palpitations, night sweats, mood swings, hot flashes. In this edition of the Color between the Lines, I'm joined by the dynamic Satori shakur. She's a 2017 Kresge literary arts fellow, storyteller, artist, and social entrepreneur who's been breaking creative ground for decades. Her career took off as a recording artist and one of George Clinton's Brides of Funkenstein, touring with Parliament Funkadelic. Since then, she's worn many hats. Actor, comedienne, television comedy writer, and founder of, the award winning secret society of twisted storytellers. Now she's taking the stage with a funny and bold one woman show called Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale, bringing humor, honesty and storytelling brilliance to a topic women are finally speaking openly, We wanna wait. menopause. Here's a short clip. We wanna wait. Menopausal. Say hot! Sex is getting predictable anyway. Always ending in, a big, fat, sloppy sneeze. Then what? Now that you've got a chance to listen to a little bit of her show, let's jump into the conversation. For those who are just discovering your work, how would you describe Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale in your own words? Confessions? Of a Menopausal Femme fatale is a story, about my 12 year journey through menopause. But it also flashes back to my childhood when my mother was going through menopause. It flashes back to when I became a mother and the challenges motherhood brought me. It looks at me taking ownership for my life and doing what I wanted to do, eventually having a purpose and a mission. But it's my personal, story, but it's really the fulfillment of a promise I made to my younger self. When I was 45 and just noticing the, first symptoms of perimenopause, which threw me for a loop. I didn't know what was happening to me. I didn't recognize myself. I was having heart palpitations, night sweats, mood swings, hot flashes, insomnia. And I just. It just. You know, you live 45 years and you think you know who you are, and then all of a sudden, boom, It's a monkey wrench is thrown in there, and it's like, really? Well, really, who am I? And so it's basically, me taking a journey through all of the questions of who am I? Through different stages of my life, and finally coming to an understanding, because I'm still growing and creating that this is who I am. I'm, who I say I am. I define myself. I don't take my cues from society or the prescription society has for me. I don't perform for different lenses out there, and I don't have to meet the expectations of those lenses or those things that people expect of women. But basically, it's my stand to, to talk about things women don't talk about because we were trained to have shame around. Around the natural growth, progression and bodily functions and biological journey that we are destined to take as women. And if we live long enough and are lucky enough to live long enough, we will enter this stage of life. And we do not have to be, afraid of the symptoms. Because we have activism around in creating doctors who know about this. I'm part of the Michigan Women's Commission here. And the, Michigan Women's Commission, is something. Governor, Gretchen Whitmore and Cheryl Bergman. We started. We started. I mean it started in 2023. They invited me to come and speak about menopause at their lunchtime panel and 250 people showed up. They wanted to talk about menopause because it was a workplace issue, it was a DEI issue and so we started to talk about it. And since then it has been such a surge of interest that they, that you know, I was invited to the governor's mansion with Halle Berry. And so they had a panel of researchers, doctors answering questions and so they're going across the state of Michigan raising awareness and fundraising to get legislation that will help women get health care and also to be demonstrate leadership in this area so other states can do the same thing. Because we represent women in some states of menopause represent the largest demographic in the United States. And even though my film is, you know, has educational entertainment and otherwise value it, we I'm not talking about pharmaceuticals or anything like that. I leave that to the doctors. And I leave that to women to demand that from their doctors and encourage doctors to take on getting more than one hour training in menopause. Because we know we're disadvantaged in every area as a female, that studies aren't done on us, and if we're women of color, even less is done. So, I'm just here to advocate. And I'm here, as an activist as, and I'm here as another woman. And I'm here because I want to be part of a community that's aware of what it is so that we can be of support to each other. But more than that, not be afraid to talk about it if it ages us. So we can let our husbands, our significant others, our children, our co workers, our employees, our employers, because we're in very powerful positions. Look at you, look at the governor, look at, women running for the presidency of the United States, all in some stage of menopause. So we are here powerfully, and we might as well get all of those things under our awareness so that we can be responsible and we can be as much as we can be. You talked about silence and shame, and I was really inspired by how you took and this subject, which often is associated with silence and shame. And you moved humor and boldness with storytelling. What inspired you to tackle the this in that way with humor and boldness? I, I think it's because I am. I am a stand up comedian. I do see the world. I do see funny. And it is funny. If you can, if you have a sense of humor, you know, and if you can, have that much investment in yourself. Bold. You have to be bold. To bust a myth, to break through taboos, to challenge, the world to see you differently, to say, hey, let's, let's not be silent. Let's talk about it. What is aging? Does it have to be something that we want to hide or something that we want to be proud of? Because we're not our. We're not our mothers and we're not our grandmothers? I have no idea how old you are. I could say you're anywhere between 35 and 50. Okay. Who knows? We're still beautiful, we're still relevant. But if we're not perky, juicy, and can pump out babies, then somehow we're sidelined, not by ourselves, but by a society that says, it's time for you to go sit, go sideline yourself. Because the younger women are more relevant and they're more important to us. But we are in a unique position to reach back and tell our daughters and our granddaughters, this is what's ahead. This is what you can look forward to. This is who you get to say you. This is who you get to define yourself as. And so we need that. We need us. We need every one of these stages to be. To show up who we are so that we can evolve more quickly. I really connected with a lot of the funny parts of your story, and I'm just wondering, when I was watching it, were there any parts of the journey that were especially hard to, but necessary to share on stage? Was there something that you had a difficulty just sharing with the audience? I could not have told this story ten years ago. Because obviously, if you saw the movie, there are just. I mean, like, motherhood. Motherhood. There is such an expectation of what it is to be a mother that all of us want to be mothers. That all of us, When the. When. When our afterbirth comes out or the placenta comes out, it comes with instructions of how to be a perfect mother. The most nurturing, loving mother. We. We're. We love you all the time, dear Babies who cry all night. And, we don't have different. That postpartum depression was not even something that was talked about when I was dismissed from the hospital. They called it baby blues. They gave it cute names. But they weren't even talking about baby blues. They just sent me home, and, I didn't know what was happening. I just thought, something's wrong with me. And when I looked to other mothers out there, my age and older, they look so happy pushing their strollers. And I had no idea. I thought I was. So I didn't say anything. I. You know, I don't, you know, Have something be wrong with me. Right. I want to be like you guys. And it's. It's so good that more people are speaking out and speaking up, because other than that, you know, and it's making more people become more authentic and more straightforward. I noticed that you have performed all over the world, including the Netherlands, To Michigan, where you're from. Detroit, Michigan. What's, I guess, one lesson about humanity that you've learned through all these voices and all these stories that you've done? What I've learned is that we're all human. We're all. We're all very fragile. We all have insecurities. We have strengths and weaknesses and gifts and talents. And, we're all somehow, talked out of some of the things that we need to express or be quiet about that or, you know, don't be fully self expressed. You know, shut your legs, pull your skirt down, pull your pants up. If you're, you know, I think that the patriarchy, patriarchal system disadvantages women. Men, children, society and the future of our evolution. Because not only does it limit women, it limits men. Men can only have three emotions and couple of them are destructive like violence and anger. And if you don't operate inside that, though, that little box of, what it is to be masculine, then you're something else that needs to be shamed. And so it's or you need to submit to me, woman. Submit to me woman. And, all these conversations the younger people are having. And women are limited because we're supposed to play a certain role. And so we don't get a chance to just stretch and grow and fully contribute to the society that we live in, fully give a full range and scope of ideas that would, would bring forth. Like, I sometimes think about all of the women, all of the art, all of the science that has been buried, murdered, shamed out of its contribution. And what if everybody could show up and give the gift that they were born to give? What would the world look like? That's a really good question. And it kind of leads me to this last question, because I think that it's not your film. Although it's done. It's not over. And I wonder what's next for Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale? Are you planning on taking it further, or is there a second part? What are you hoping to do next with this? Well, I don't think that I'm. Have anything in mind for doing next with it I think this is a complete offering and if there's any more to say about that then it will derive from my life But I have. I want to do a documentary about the Secret Society of twisted storytellers a platform I created here in Detroit which has hosted any everywhere from George Clinton to senators to mothers to people telling their own personal stories and having a listening audience that gives them the opportunity to be heard because as I understand it as I observe very few people have an experience of truly being heard and gotten so to be able to stand there as a human being and forgive yourself accept yourself in front of a community of people who stand up at the end of the day and applaud your courage for coming out as simply human but more than that offering your humanity to other human beings who now can take the shackles off of their being muzzled and we've had people get married. Out of coming to our show. You know, we had stopped talking, and we came to your show, and he hasn't shut up since. I'm engaged. We're married. This is our third anniversary. And then they come back to the show, you know, on their anniversary. Or, babies being born in the space of time, or kids who came at 8 and are. Have grown up, or kids that have taken the stage and now are getting degrees, in communications. And so there are stories and after stories. And I appreciate your question about what's next. Whatever comes to me as a passion is an idea that's delicious enough for me to just throw myself in to do. You can catch Confessions of, the Menopausal Femme Fatale online now. Streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV plus and Google Play. Esther. I'm Esther Dillard. Thanks for joining the color between the lines. Until next time, remember, your story matters, and it just might change the world.