We were lucky to catch up with Satori Shakoor recently and have shared our conversation below.

Satori, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

I am very, very happy as a creative artist. I wouldn’t have it any other way. When I was struggling I worked many, many different jobs. When I worked temp jobs as a secretary I was miserable. They bored me. never satisfied my creative urges and often got in the way of my pursuits until I took the leap and freed myself. Being an artist and a creative is where I find my calling and purpose. It’s where I am most satisfied. It’s who I am. I stand for everyone doing what they love to do for the rest of their lives. What I learned was we only have one life to live. Take the necessary risks to live it full out.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Satori Shakoor. I am a storyteller first and foremost. I come from a long line of storytellers, old black ladies from the Alabama, Mississippi Jim Crow south. Storytelling was their language, the way they communicated. They were masters. They could make going to the corner store sound like Lord of the Rings. It was just what we spoke in the home. So I didn’t identify storytelling as an art form until many decades later when The Moth, a storytelling organization based in New York lifted it up as a worthy art form. When they began to produce story slams in Detroit, friends of mine took me to one and encouraged me to throw my name in the hat. I won! After that The Moth began to fly me around the country as a main stage storyteller and asked me to host the Ann Arbor storytelling slams. During that time in 2011, which was six years following the deaths of my mother and son, I noticed that telling my story was healing me and I was slowly returning to life. I wanted to live. I also noticed that Detroit was just coming back from Emergency Management, water shutoffs, Flint water crisis, disappearing tax base and all manner of assault. I began to ask myself as an artist if storytelling can heal me could it also heal the City of Detroit? That’s when I conceived the idea of The Secret Society Of Twisted Storytellers®. I had no money. I was living in the basement of a friend’s house. But the idea was so delicious I couldn’t resist pursuing it. I sold tickets in advance and rented a little space that held 45 seats. We sold out. The storytellers I curated got a standing ovation and we just grew with community support, eventual grant support and now it’s 14 years later. My calling and purpose as storyteller has expanded. I facilitate storytelling workshops for universities, high school schools, faith based organizations and corporations. I produce live events for organizations and develop and use storytelling to help businesses problem solve. I am continually surprised by my email inbox at the kinds of requests I am asked to fulfill. I work with the Michigan Women’s Commission, AARP and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in their initiative Menopause: It’s a Movement. I produced a film called “Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale,” my story of my journey through the change. The film was released on Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ and Google Play in June 2025. I am very proud of that achievement. It’s an independent film that fulfills a promise I made to my younger self to leave my experience of menopause for the women coming behind me to encourage women to embrace all of who we are and cease the silence around so-called taboo subjects. It’s natural. It’s freeing. It’s empowering on the other side.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the lessons I had to unlearn was to stop listening to the discouraging advice of other people. Most of the time the advice came from their own unmet hopes and expectations and the fear that I wouldn’t meet mine. They didn’t mean intentional harm but projection can stick on you like glue and keep you stuck in other people’s fears. For example, my mother believed that the highest achievement I could earn was to be a secretary. She thought is was important that I support myself and not have to depend on others for money, etc. So being an artist terrified her as something I wanted to pursue. For years, I struggled through temp jobs, afraid to let go, quit and pursue my dreams. It put a damper on my self-confidence and obscured my vision and dreams. Until one day, I gathered the courage and quit my job. I found there was a way. It was always there, I just chose a path that didn’t allow me to see it. I never looked back. It can be challenging and a struggle, however, I am being challenged by what I’ve chosen and I am struggling to make myself better through it. At some point, opportunities just knock on my door because I have proven my integrity, commitment and willingness to see whatever I take on through. It’s character building to find one’s purpose and live it through.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal, my organization and non-profit all have the same global mission: To connect humanity, heal and transform community and to provide an uplifting, thought-provoking, soul-cleansing experience through the art, craft and science of storytelling. We also recognize that listening is a human kindness, it’s an act of generosity. Listening grants being to another. I believe that listening is a revolutionary act and that at the highest level listening is love. So when we listen to stories we are providing a service. The storyteller and the story listener are soul mates and that’s what we seek to make happen though our live events, storytelling workshops and sheer presence.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.satorishakoor.com and https://www.twistedtellers.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/satorishakoorfilms/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SatoriShakoorFilms
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/satori-shakoor-22731813
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SecretSocietyStories

Image Credits

Felicia Tolbert – Starpointe Photography