Read ‘P-Valley’ Creator’s Goodbye Letter as Series Nears Its End

P-Valley creator and showrunner Katori Hall is saying goodbye as the acclaimed strip-club drama prepares to end its run after three seasons.

Earlier today, Starz announced the show’s third and final season will premiere on Friday, Dec. 4.

Alongside the announcement and release of the season’s first teaser trailer, Hall shared a heartfelt letter reflecting on the story’s 17-year journey from stage play to television series.

Related: ‘P-Valley’ to End With Season 3 as Starz Sets December Premiere

Set in the Mississippi Delta, P-Valley premiered on Starz in July 2020. The show has won numerous awards, and in 2023 was named Best Drama by the African American Film Critics Association.

According to Hall’s letter, the story was inspired by dozens of interviews with midnight ballerinas she met while doing research.

She thanked Starz, “the one network that said yes,” for giving the story a TV home.

“I am grateful to the folks at Starz, past and present, for greenlighting this series and giving a platform to so much amazing Black, queer, and femme talent,” she wrote.

Hall, a native of Tennessee, studied at the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and participated in TV producer Ryan Murphy’s initiative for aspiring filmmakers after graduating from college.

You can read the full goodbye letter from Katori Hall below:

Dear Pynk Posse,

There comes a moment when every stripper must hang up her heels. Seventeen years into this dance, that time has come. I began writing this story back in 2009, from the kitchen table of my little apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC. Inspired by the honest and courageous stories of the 40-plus midnight ballerinas I met during my research, P-ssy Valley grew from the page to the stage, before debuting on the screen in 2020 as P-VALLEY.

Adapting my play into three seasons of television over the past decade has been the ride of a lifetime, filled with massive highs and lows that echo the ever-changing TV landscape. Much like The Pynk, this series has survived and thrived in perilous times, buoyed by the love and support of the greatest fanbase on EARF. The rarest honor a showrunner can have in today’s industry is to end a series on her own terms. This is why I chose to say goodbye with grace, grit and glitter, lowering the curtain on P-VALLEY at Season 3 with a farewell y’all truly deserve.

Together, as a framily, we will celebrate this journey, hopefully having been changed by the experience of being in community together.

I am grateful to the folks at STARZ, past and present, for greenlighting this series and giving a platform to so much amazing Black, queer, and femme talent. STARZ was the one network who said yes to this story—but sometimes one yes is all you need.

P-VALLEY is my rumination on “The American Dream,” a visual novel of 27 chapters that chronicles the lives and times of the majestic and the marginalized—a love letter to those of us in the trenches. I am forever indebted to my amazing writers, cast, and crew who moved mountains to bring this story of the little-strip-club that-could to the world.

Pynk Posse, I think we did y’all proud. This daughter of Memphissippi truly believes this is her finest work. Endings often come with tears, but we all know Uncle Clifford Rule 24.5: “No cryin’ at the Pynk.” This is a moment to celebrate a revolution that got televised, an opus of sound and fury that sparked difficult conversations from Bible study to the Barbershop, from the pole to the pulpit. We never did it for the trophies, we did it for YOU—y’all who stood ten toes down as we tried to fall into the sky. Thank you, Pynk Posse. YOU are why we fly. May this last dance go down in history as our greatest season ever.

Much love,
Auntie Katori