When Katori Hall first pitched the idea to convert her popular play about Black strip club culture into the television series “P-Valley,” the Pulitzer Prize winner was either quickly rejected after meeting with networks or denied before she could fully explain the concept.
Hall struggled to find support from some network executives who thought the concept would be exploitative of Black women, in light of the history of casting them in hypersexualized roles on screen. Hall, who is a Black woman, understood they wanted to avoid any backlash, but her overall vision was focused on humanizing exotic dancers — which Starz heard with “open ears.”
