Detroiter's one-woman show, 'Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale,' debuts on streaming
About 25 years ago, Satori Shakoor began having mood swings, cramps, heart palpitations and hot flashes. Her mother told her she was experiencing 'the change of life.' That was the standard euphemism for the barrage of symptoms and emotions that Shakoor was then trying to understand.
'Nothing announces it. You don't hear a trumpeter going: 'Dah, dah, dah, daaah. You are now entering perimenopause! This is what you can expect,'' she says with a laugh. 'It just creeps up and, one day, you're just, 'What is this?''
Shakoor is helping spread the awareness that she lacked with "Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale," a movie that will be available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Google Play starting June 12.
It's the filmed version of her 2023 one-woman show about her journey through menopause — and through personal triumphs and tragedies — with a candor that is moving and relatable to women from all walks of life.
Mixing music and song with vivid storytelling, Shakoor delivers a tour-de-force performance with unflagging energy. She begins by describing the panic attack in 2022 that almost prevented her from taking an eagerly awaited trip to Hawaii with her husband.
From there, she travels back in time and opens up about personal topics, sometimes with humor, other times with deep sorrow, as she explores everything from past relationships and financial hardships to postpartum depression and the devastating losses of her son and mother.
While exploring her own life amidst her journey through menopause, Shakoor finds, as described on her website, that 'from the depths of this reckoning emerges a profound awakening — one that leads her to grace, redemption, and the joy of radical self-acceptance.'
A versatile performing artist, Shakoor has had a varied and vibrant career. As a singer, she toured with George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic and was part of the Brides of Funkenstein girl group. She later became a founding member of the Obsidian Theatre Company in Toronto, a leading force in Canada for Black actors and playwrights.
In 2011, Shakoor's power as a live storyteller led her to participate in a contest in Detroit held by the Moth, a nonprofit that celebrates the art of storytelling. She won there and later won second place at a Moth national event, which led to her hosting Moth events in Ann Arbor.
In 2012, Shakoor founded the Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers events that continue to this day. In 2017, she was recognized with a prestigious Kresge Artist Fellowship. Currently, she also hosts 'Detroit Performs Live' for Detroit Public TV and produces live events and workshops involving storytelling for corporations, universities and civic organizations.
Shakoor says her movie is the end result of a promise she made to herself once menopause began. 'I said, 'Well, I'm going to go through this and when I get to the other side, I'm going to write about it so there is something to leave to women coming behind me.''
In 2018, she began writing what would become 'Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale." She did three live performances in 2023 at Detroit Public Theatre, which were filmed by Detroit's Black Pepper Studios. Its CEO, Jonathan Jewell-Chatten, directed the movie.
After two years spent finishing postproduction and finding distribution, the movie is hitting major streaming platforms. 'It took quite a long time, which I'm proud of myself, because I sustained that commitment over many years,' says Shakoor.
Menopause is getting more attention these days, she notes.
This year, Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry relaunched Respin website for general wellness as Respin Health, which focuses on information and resources for the roughly 75 million women in America who are either in perimenopause, menopause or postmenopause.
Berry came to Michigan in March for a Women's History Month event with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Dr. Pauline Maki, a menopause researcher, to help spread the word on the need for awareness about 'the lack of information and research about menopause jeopardizing women's health,' according to the Michigan Women's Commission.
Shakoor is part of the effort to encourage more dialogue on menopause — and more understanding that it can be a transformative time for women.
In 'Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale,' she says that 'what menopause did for me was give me the power to be fully self-expressed,' describing the self-awareness, self-confidence and wisdom that can come with this chapter of a women's journey.
'There is a freedom to not have to edit yourself on the spot or have to feel guilty at the end of the day. Because I was waking up (telling myself), 'Well, you know you're going to have to apologize to at least three people today,' she says with a laugh.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit's Satori Shakoor delivers powerful one-woman show on menopause
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