'P-Valley's Katori Hall On What We Can Expect in Season 2
It’s time to go back down in the Valley!
This Friday marks the premiere of the highly anticipated second season of STARZ’s hit drama series P-Valley. Set in the hot and steamy world of stripping located in the even hotter and steamier state of Mississippi, P-Valley quickly amassed a fanbase thanks to its sexy cast and its tackling of issues like sex worker rights and challenges, poverty, domestic violence, gentrification, queerness and more.
Katori Hall stands with the stars of P-Valley, (L-R) Nicco Annan, Elarica Johnson, Brandee Evans, Shannon Thornton, and J. Alphonse Nicholson at the P-Valley Premiere in LA
Rodin Eckenroth / Stringer
One person who wasn’t surprised by the show’s immediate success is its creator Katori Hall. “I had an inkling,” Hall tells xoNecole. “If the show had an opportunity to be seen, that it actually would take flight.”
Hall first got the idea for P-Valley in 2009, inspired by her frequent trips to strip clubs in the south and her brief time taking pole dancing classes. “My own experience with strip clubs and that class collided in my brain,” Hall says. “And it made me want to do a lot more research about the women who are dancers and just learn more about their lives.”
Hall initially conceived the idea for P-Valley as a play. The Pulitzer Prize and Olivier Award winner and two-time Tony Award nominee have been thriving in the medium since 2009. “Stripping is such a theatrical experience,” Hall explains. “I grew up down south, I grew up going to clubs. So I was really impressed and inspired by the show of stripping.” Once she saw her characters come to life on stage, however, she realized she wanted to explore them for a longer period of time than a stage play allows. “I want my characters to participate in more than just this story,” Hall says.“There’s so many other stories that I want to tell with these characters.”
Much of the success of the show comes from the vibrancy of the characters such as the flamboyant strip club madam of the Pynk, Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan). Hall credits her family for providing the inspiration for those characters. “Uncle Clifford is actually a fusion of my real Uncle Clifford and my mom and my dad,” Hall says. “I just wanted to create this very gender-fluid character who was very feminine and masculine in equal measure.” Other characters she says like the Pynk’s OG star stripper Mercedes (Brandee Evans) or the Pynk’s fastest rising star Miss Mississippi (Shannon Thornton) are amalgamations of women she’s met in the strip clubs and also her older sisters.
As the youngest of four girls, Hall says that her parents were “tired” by the time it came to raising her, so she says that she was given the space to explore her creative interests more. “From the time I was itty, itty, bitty, I was writing in my journals and creating plays with my dolls,” Halls says. “I knew that I was destined to put words down on paper and create characters and worlds.”
When she attended college at Columbia University, she initially pursued theater as an actress. However, it was the dearth of meaty roles for Black women in her theater program that led to her wanting to create her own roles for herself and for other women that Hall says “look like myself.” It was through creating her own stories and characters that Hall realized the sort of power she was able to possess over her career.
Katori Hall and Megan Thee Stallion at the P-Valley Premiere in Los Angeles
Araya Doheny / Stringer
Hall says that she is committed to writing stories that center the Black female experience, stories about survival, and stories about the underdog. By setting P- Valley in a strip club, she allowed her to use that space as a metaphor. “Oftentime within a strip club there are moments of liberation and then there are moments of exploitation,” Hall says.
We see it all and more in the latest season, including more music from Lil Murda (J. Alphonse Nicholson) and even a track by Megan Thee Stallion. At the Los Angeles premiere of P-Valley on Thursday, Hall took the stage to tease what we can expect in season two of her hit show: “It’s deeper, it’s darker, and it’s 1000% better.”
ItGirl 100 Honors Black Women Who Create Culture & Put On For Their Cities
As they say, create the change you want to see in this world, besties. That’s why xoNecole linked up with Hyundai for the inaugural ItGirl 100 List, a celebration of 100 Genzennial women who aren’t afraid to pull up their own seats to the table. Across regions and industries, these women embody the essence of discovering self-value through purpose, honey! They're fierce, they’re ultra-creative, and we know they make their cities proud.
VIEW THE FULL ITGIRL 100 LIST HERE.
Don’t forget to also check out the ItGirl Directory, featuring 50 Black-woman-owned marketing and branding agencies, photographers and videographers, publicists, and more.
THE ITGIRL MEMO
I. An ItGirl puts on for her city and masters her self-worth through purpose.
II. An ItGirl celebrates all the things that make her unique.
III. An ItGirl empowers others to become the best versions of themselves.
IV. An ItGirl leads by example, inspiring others through her actions and integrity.
V. An ItGirl paves the way for authenticity and diversity in all aspects of life.
VI. An ItGirl uses the power of her voice to advocate for positive change in the world.
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Rihanna Talks Shedding Expectations And Finding Balance As A Mother
Since becoming a mother in 2022, Rihanna has defined parenthood by her terms and hopes to pass that sense of autonomy on to her children.
For Vogue China’s April cover story, Rihanna shared her perspective on raising her two sons with A$AP Rocky, and how she hopes to preserve her children’s uniqueness, devoid of societal expectations.
"The most beautiful thing...is that [children] come into the world with their own individuality and sincerity, without any logic or conformity,” she told the publication. “Which usually makes you feel that you must fit into a certain group."
The “Work” artist, known for her trendsetting style and captivating persona, expressed her desire to support children in fully embracing their individuality and encouraging them to be whoever they want to be. "It's really beautiful to see and I want to continue to help them navigate that and make sure that they know they can be whoever they want to be,” she says.
She continues, “They should embrace it completely, because it's beautiful, and it's unique. I love them just that way."
From shattering music charts to shaking up the beauty industry, Rihanna has forged a path that has since created the “dream” life we see today. One that she says has made her parents proud of.
“I’m living my dream,” she continued. “My parents were very proud of that because they just wanted me to be happy and successful. So, I think the key thing is to find some kind of balance. Yes, balance is important. Do this and you get the best of both worlds. You can write your own life the way you want, and it will be beautiful. Sometimes, you just need to let go of everyone’s expectations and start living your own story.”
Rihanna, who shares sons, RZA, 23 months, and Riot, 8 months, with rapper A$AP Rocky, recently shared her vision for expanding her family in the future in Interview Magazine.
When stylist Mel Ottenberg asked about the number of additional children she hoped to have, Rihanna replied, "As many as God wants me to have.”
"I don't know what God wants, but I would go for more than two. I would try for my girl,” she adds. “But of course, if it's another boy, it's another boy."
Featured image by Neil MockfordWireImage