Meet Satori Shakoor

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

Satori, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
t’s 2011, Six years after my mother and son died. Barack Obama is President. Everyone is chanting”Yes we can! Yes we can!” I’m running out of money. There’s not a theatre job in sight. All my investments have crashed with Wall Street. I need a job, but I don’t want a job. I want to do what I love to do for the rest of my life. So it scares me that I’m sitting on my couch not looking for a job, and it scares me that if I look hard enough I might find one. It’s not that I don’t want to work. I just don’t want to work for anyone who would hire me. Well, fear will test anybody’s faith and I was so scared I applied for jobs everywhere. No one called me back except Macy’s. Three days after my interview I get an email informing me they could’ve hire me at this time, dot, dot, dot. My heart is beating fast. My stomach doing flips. What am I going to do? Then all of a sudden, this feeling comes over me like a message from the universe saying, you better do what you love to do for the rest of your life because no one is going to hire the incredible menopausal hulk.

A month later, I’m surrounded by boxes I have to move out of my loft of 9 years inyo a bedroom in my sister’s house. It’s not my fault Wall Street crashed and “Too big to fail” failed. Yet here I am trying to figure out how to pay for the storage unit and the U-Haul truck. I was terrified of my uncertain future when I moved into that bedroom in my sister’s house. But little did I know my life would change when I met The Moth a few months later at a story slam in Detroit. I throw my name in the hat and win! Next thing I know The Moth has asked me to tell a story in front of 2,000 people at The Fillmore theatre in Detroit. They’re flying me around the country telling my story of grief, loss and overcoming. I share the same stage with Richard Price, Adam Gopnik and Garrison Keiler. People from all over the world are emailing me thanking me for telling my story like it’s a service or something.. I realize that telling my story is healing me, forgiving me. I’m a storyteller! I remember I come from a long line of storytellers. Old, uneducated Black women from the Alabama, Mississippi Jim Crow South. They told stories to teach, to warn, to entertain and impart. They were masters. They could make going to the corner store sound like Lord of the Rings. I’m a storyteller. This is my calling, my purpose. This is what I’m supposed to do for the rest of my life. I went on to found The Secret Society Of Twisted Storytellers where others can share their stories and make a difference. That was 12 years ago and I haven’t looked back since. I love my life. Love what I do and I will do it for the rest of my life!

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Satori Shakoor is a storyteller, writer, social entrepreneur and a 2017 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow. Satori received early recognition as a background singer/recording artist when she toured with George Clinton, Parliament/Funkadelic as one of the Brides of Funkenstein. She expanded her performance career to include actor, comedienne, and television comedy writer. Satori was the catalyst and a founding member of the award-winning Obsidian Theatre Company in Toronto. Founded in 1999, Obsidian Theatre has become Canada’s leading culturally diverse theatre company. In 2011, Satori began her professional career as a storyteller touring the country as a Moth main stage storyteller and host. She has told stories globally on many stages and storytelling platforms, PBS, NPR and podcasts. Satori hosts the Twisted Storytellers podcast produced by WDET Radio, Detroit Performs Live at Marygrove produced by Detroit Public Television on PBS.

Satori is the Executive Producer for the award-winning The Secret Society Of Twisted Storytellers®, which she founded in July 2012 in Detroit. TSSOTS has a global mission to connect humanity, heal and transform community and to provide an uplifting, thought- provoking, soul-cleansing entertainment experience through the art and craft of storytelling. Satori is the Executive Director for The Society for the Re-Institutionalization of Storytelling, a Michigan 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization. The Secret Society Of Twisted Storytellers partners with businesses, corporations, educational institutions, and faith-based organizations to produce and program live events.

Satori designs and facilitates storytelling workshops in the art and craft of storytelling for arts organizations, small businesses, corporations and to individuals. Some clients include Inside/Out Literary Project, Crain’s Communication, Duke University, Bowling Green University, Detroit Zoological Society, Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, Bing Youth Institute, Wayne State University School of Social Work, New Detroit Racial Healing and Genealogy Project, MPHI, New Economy Initiative, Issue Media Group, Wayne State University Business School, Arab American National Museum, Hannan House, University of Michigan and Detroit Historical Society.

Satori was honored by I. Detroit, along with 100 other Detroiters who have moved the needle forward for the city of Detroit. In November 2018, upon invitation, Satori installed The Secret Society Of Twisted Storytellers Europe Edition in Utrecht, The Netherlands to address issues of racism.

Satori studied Music Performance at Michigan State University, Dramatic Arts at University of Hawaii (Manoa) and earned a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Wayne State University in 2008. Satori was trained in the art of improvisation by The Groundlings in Los Angeles and Second City Toronto in Canada.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Do what you love. 2. Have impeccable integrity.
3. Develop yourself, your skill set, work ethic and follow through no matter what.

My advice is to feel the fear, but practice having the courage to do what you’re afraid of anyway.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
I would have to say, Altheal Randolph. She is a friend and coach. Altheal has guided me to enroll in leadership courses, pointed me in the direction of self-development seminars and books to read. However, the most impactful thing we do and have done for the past 7 years is that every Sunday we do a mastermind call. We spend 1 hour to 1.5 hours going through a series of steps where we articulate any “wins, miracles, gratitude or other.” We then move through steps where we speak what we are willing to surrender, to do and declare as our mindset, actions we promise to take and postures we will take. Then we make specific requests of what we want to accomplish and/or achieve during that week or over time. The next week we practice the process again and measure how effective we were in manifesting the requests from the week before. It is a very powerful practice and Altheal has become my integriy and accountability partner. I recommend that everyone find someone to partner with to manifest their dreams, short-term and long-term goals in service of that dream.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Felicia Tolbert – Starpointe Photography Monica Morgan

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