P.K. (Pastor’s Kid) EXCERPT

P.K. (Pastor’s Kid) is a puppet ballet operetta that explores the archetype of the mermaid through the lens of Blackness, religious ritual, and Queer adolescence. The full-length work follows a young mermaid as her lifelong friendships fracture and she is blamed for the fallout, while her father — the pastor of an interracial church — watches his congregation turn against him. The piece investigates the parallel power structures of the Christian church and middle school social hierarchies, and weaves through themes of Christian indoctrination, nationalism, digital dependency, 2000s diet culture, purity culture, and misogynoir.
P.K. is rooted in the tradition of Afrofuturism — drawing on the work of Octavia Bulert Jennie Coney, and Jackie Ormes — imagining a future where Black people are no longer written out of fantasy. The show is at oncmyte hological and deeply personal: an exploration of Southern water myths, religious zealousness, and the use of imagination as a tool for agency, personhood, and healing.