Pynk proverbs: peeling the layers on spirituality and public health practices in the 'P-valley' television series.

Abstract

Starz's 'P-Valley' television series rivets audiences with its racy themes set in the backdrop of a fictional Mississippi town's strip club called the Pynk. The provocative setting could easily overshadow the profound social and health themes embedded within each episode. This paper engages with P-Valley's second season, released in 2022 as edutainment, which represents an American cultural group's approaches to coping with public health challenges. We conducted a critical textual analysis that revealed three themes - escapism, 'framily' or chosen community and spirituality - that shaped how characters navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, racial violence, economic hardship, and chronic health crisis management. The series dramatised community health epidemics in the context of southern African American practices underscoring for public health practitioners the need for community approaches and spirituality. Its visual aesthetic exposed practices for healing and coping in community, rooted in cultural expression, spirituality and identity. P-Valley dances in the realm of media representation, offering a window into culturally grounded public health interventions.