✨The Empress Questionnaire: “The Moth, The Mic & The Midlife Mic-Drop” ✨🎙️👑
Satori Shakoor Takes the Stage—and Takes No Prisoners
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Fellow Empresses,
Let’s get one thing straight: if storytelling had a Mount Rushmore, Satori Shakoor’s face would be carved into it—with a gold mic and a sequined jumpsuit. You may know her from The Moth, or from her days touring the world as a Bride of Funkenstein (yes, that Parliament/Funkadelic), or maybe from her knockout performance in Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale, which is currently lighting up Amazon Prime like it’s having its own hot flash.
Satori is a national treasure with a Detroit address. She’s the founder of The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers®—a platform so good it should come with a warning label: “May cause spontaneous tears, unplanned epiphanies, and joy-induced dance breaks.” She’s also a Kresge Literary Arts Fellow, a PBS host, and the kind of woman who once emceed an event for Barack Obama and got him to laugh. (Power. Moves.)
In her questionnaire, Satori talks about grief, grace, and the kind of clarity that only comes from losing—and then finding—yourself again. She touched on the artistry of storytelling, the messy miracle of menopause, and the freedom that comes with finally claiming the mic and the moment.
There are a dozen more questions I wanted to ask her about performing for The Moth and what it’s like to bare your soul to an audience who expects magic—and gets it. (We’ll get to those in the comments, promise.)
For now, I’ll leave you with this:
“Midlife happiness,” Satori says, “is embracing your autonomy and sovereignty. Do what you’ve always wanted to do. Expand on what you’ve always wanted to do. And center yourself in your life.”
Read that again. And then go watch Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll want to book a one-way ticket to Detroit just to hug this woman.
Grace is her compass. Gratitude, her prayer.
We are so lucky she’s in the Queendom.
About Satori!
Satori Shakoor is a dynamic storyteller, multi-disciplinary artist, and social entrepreneur. A former background singer with George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic, she toured internationally as one of the Brides of Funkenstein before expanding into acting, comedy, and television writing. She was a founding member of Toronto’s Obsidian Theatre Company and is a 2017 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow.
In 2011, Satori began her journey into live storytelling, quickly rising as a Moth Mainstage performer and host, featured on global stages, PBS, NPR, and acclaimed podcasts. She currently hosts Detroit Performs Live on Detroit PBS and MC’d the Kresge Foundation’s 2024 Centennial event with President Barack Obama.
She is the founder and Executive Producer of The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers®, an award-winning platform based in Detroit that promotes healing, connection, and transformation through storytelling. As Executive Director of its nonprofit arm, she partners with institutions to produce live events and workshops, including those for Duke University, the University of Michigan, and national health organizations.
In 2018, Satori brought her storytelling platform to the Netherlands to address racism affecting refugees. She is a lifelong learner with studies in music, drama, and improv.
“Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale” is available now on Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, and Google Play.
About Her Work…
Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale
Satori Shakoor didn’t expect menopause to shake her to her core, but it did. In May 2022, two years after the height of the pandemic, she boarded a plane to Hawaii with her husband for a second honeymoon. But when a wave of panic forces her off the plane, Satori realizes it’s not fear—it’s memory. Forty years earlier, she escaped to Hawaii to survive postpartum depression and a life she no longer recognized.
Her menopausal journey started in 1995 with mood swings, night sweats, and a racing heart—symptoms no one seemed to understand, not even her mother. But it was through this fog that Satori found clarity. She quit smoking, left her dead-end temp job, and chased her long-abandoned dreams as a writer and performer.
Then tragedy struck: her son Noah was nearly killed in a car accident. The ICU became a courtroom of guilt and grief as Satori confronted the truth of leaving him behind. Though Noah survived, he died years later, just months after Satori’s mother passed. Shattered, broke, and filled with doubt, Satori turned to storytelling.
In 2012, she founded The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers in Detroit—a platform to connect and heal through the power of narrative. What began as personal survival evolved into community transformation.
Twelve years after her symptoms began, Satori emerged reborn. Menopause wasn’t just a physical transition—it was a rite of passage. And when she returns from Hawaii in 2022, she is no longer haunted by the past. She is free. Grace is her compass now. Gratitude, her only prayer.
1. What is your idea of perfect midlife happiness?
My idea is to embrace the confidence, freedom, and power that midlife offers. Do what you have always wanted to do, expand on what you have always wanted to do, and center yourself in your life. Embrace your autonomy and sovereignty.
2. Which empress, queen, goddess, or mythical figure do you most identify with?
The Egyptian Queen Nefertiti.
Nerfertiti was the queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for their radical overhaul of state religious policy, in which they promoted the earliest known form of monotheism, Atenism, centered on the sun disc and its direct connection to the royal household. With her husband, she reigned during what was arguably the wealthiest period of ancient Egyptian history. After her husband's death, some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled briefly as the female pharaoh known by the throne name Neferneferuaten and before the ascension of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate. If Nefertiti had ruled as a pharaoh, her reign would have been marked by the fall of Amarna and the relocation of the capital back to the traditional city of Thebes.
3. Which living midlife woman do you most admire? (And why?)
Michelle Obama. I chose Michelle because she leads with transparency and vulnerability. She’s experienced power at the highest levels and remained grounded in compassion, especially in her role as a mother, showing pride and acceptance in her daughters’ choices. She continues to share her values and voice through her work in film (via Netflix) and in thoughtful conversations on her podcast with her brother.
4. What aspect of midlife or the menopausal journey do you most deplore?
The symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings, heart palpitations, night sweats, brain fog, not recognizing myself, and depression.
5. What do you most treasure or value about this phase of life?
Freedom, not having to perform to other people's expectations, being fully self expressed, not having to manage myself or my voice around others and doing what I damn well please.
6. If you could share one key midlife lesson, hack, or nugget of wisdom, what would it be?
Tell your stories. Tell the truth. Say what there is to say. Clean it up later.
7. What gives you the greatest sense of agency in midlife? (i.e., “Knowing that I can…”)
Being myself, fully. Learning the importance of saying "no." Realizing my lived experience has given me the confidence, power, and skill to do whatever I imagine myself doing.
8. Give us the headline for your Empress Age. (one that captures the bold narrative you are rewriting for the latter half of your life)
“Being Myself With No Apology.”
Satori’s Empress Edit
It’s the simple things:
Telling stories.
Creating collaborative projects.
Being in Jamaica, doing nothing.
Hanging out with my husband.
Watching YouTube shows.
Films.
Having an outfit made for me for a special occasion.
Where readers can find you:
https://www.twistedtellers.org
https://www.instagram.com/satorishakoorfilms
https://www.facebook.com/SatoriShakoorFilms
https://www.facebook.com/TheSecretSocietyOfTwistedStorytellers/
We hope you enjoyed the questionnaire. This week, we are on the road for the launch of Quickies: one hundred little lessons for living sexily ever after in midlife!
Where in the world is The Empress???
We will be at Books Are Magic in Brooklyn signing from 2 pm - 4 pm on 6/24.
On Thursday, 6/26, Heather will be at three locations in the DC metro area (Old Town Alexandria) at Ms. Moxie’s Moonshop, Lotus Blooms, and Friends to Lovers from 3 pm on!
On 6/30, the Quickies Pajama Party arrives at Lovestruck Books in Cambridge for a night of merriment. Please RSVP here.
And on 7/12, Heather will be signing books at Sara’s Secret in Dallas, TX—Details forthcoming on that event!
But stay tuned, Empresses! Tomorrow, we will be making an announcement LIVE from Times Square—something you’ve all been asking for, and now’s your chance!
Yours in Grandeur & Deep Sh*t,
PS - I am a human typo. Amnesty appreciated.
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Satori hit me like a good avalanche--if there is such a thing. She's clever and honest and I laughed till it hurt, but as the French Fry Cutter salesman says, "there's more" and here's why: Satori says, among all the stories that broke me up, made me laugh and cry: "Tell the truth. Say what there is to say. Clean it up later."
I'll explain a bit, if I might:
When my mother died, I was in menopause and to my husband's surprise -- and it turns out more than a bit of horror -- I was chasing him around to the point of his exhaustion and my never-ending need. The result was a written "live" memoir -- yes I mean it, I blogged it (Can you believe that one?) and it's here (forgive a link? I hope, Alisa): https://marytabor.substack.com/p/table-of-content
I adore Satori and you ... enjoy your travels with that fab book Quickies--yep, I have it and have read it cover to cover!
xx
Inspiring and uplifting! She's amazing in all the ways :)