Tag: Calvin S. Cato

“Before & After” Part 1: Calvin S. Cato and Michele Carlo (Episode 79)

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Our spring “Before & After” show was our second time performing at the beautiful  Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space on March 13, 2025, but it was our very first student matinee! 

Our storytellers and our special guest host, Najah Imani Muhammad, who are all No, YOU Tell It! alums, illustrated the power of storytelling for a theater full of high school juniors from Global Learning Collaborative and Talent Unlimited High School to help inspire the personal stories they want to tell in their college application essays.

Story siblings Calvin S. Cato and Michele Carlo. Photo credit: Russ Rowland

Give a listen to part one of our show, where Calvin S. Cato and Michele Carlo become story siblings by stepping into each other’s true tales about the best-laid plans and unforeseen accidents that send our lives in new directions. 

Thank you to NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund (A Statewide Theatre Regrant Program) for helping us make our first-ever student matinee a reality. Here’s to what we hope is the first of many!

Podcast narrated by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

Stories

  • “Don’t Quit Your Day Job,” by Calvin S. Cato, performed by Michele Carlo, and directed by Tim Lindner
  • “The Accident,” by Michele Carlo, performed by Calvin S. Cato, and directed by Tim Lindner.

Bios

Named one of Time Out New York’s LGBTQ Comics of Color to Watch Out For, Calvin S. Cato has dazzled audiences around the world. His on-air and radio appearances include Oxygen, Netflix, Sirius XM, RISK!, WIRED Magazine, and an unaired pilot for Vice Media called Emergency Black Meeting. His comedy has been featured in numerous festivals and events, including the New York Comedy Festival, San Francisco Sketchfest, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Gotham Storytelling Festival, Brooklyn Pride, and FlameCon. In early 2021, Calvin was published in Kweendom, an anthology of essays by queer comedians and entertainers. In 2022, Calvin concluded a three-month run hosting a daily talk show on RushTix.com.

Michele Carlo is a writer, storyteller, sometimes actor, and the author of the NYC-set memoir Fish Out of Agua: My Life on Neither Side of the Subway Tracks (Citadel/Kensington). She has appeared on podcasts, festivals, and stages across the U.S., on NPR, and the WGBH-PBS television series Stories from the Stage. For bookings and more info, go to: www.michelecarlo.com 

April 18, 2025 Post Comment Podcast Tags: , , ,

Meet Our “Before & After” Storytellers

Our first story meeting for our first student matinee is tonight! But FIRST, meet our “Before & After” alum storytellers.

These four storytellers participated in four different NYTI shows over the past decade. They are meeting tonight to help each other develop their true tales inspired by the theme “Before & After” on the page.

On March 13, they will swap stories on stage for students and faculty from Global Learning Collaborative High School.

Meet our NYTI alums!

We’re excited to build our creative community by having alum storytellers return and trade tales with a new story partner!

These matinees for students working on their college essays are a dynamic example of how the No, YOU Tell It! collaborative process makes writing and performing personal narratives accessible, empathetic, and transformative.

We hope to do more student shows and are raising $2500 in March to make that happen.

If 50 people donate $50, we’ll reach our goal! Want to be one?

Donate $50 here via our fiscal sponsor, The Field, to get the ball rolling.

Want to see this special show at Symphony Space at 1 pm on March 13? Email noyoutellit@gmail.com for a ticket!

February 26, 2025 1 comment Live Shows Tags: , , , ,

Episode 54 – Coming & Going (Part 1)

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Have you ever wanted to be someone else? The opening story of “Coming & Going”— our second team-up show with Lambda Literary — follows Calvin…or as he’d like to be known, Craig, as he travels to Florida to become someone new. This journey to overcome grief caused by a death, a breakup, and an unforgiving New York City reveals that what we seek might already be inside us, even if we have to imagine our future with a new set of eyes once in a while.

Nicole Shawan Junior reads “Becoming Someone Else in Florida” written by Calvin S. Cato.

Nicole’s reading was directed by Amanda Sisk.

Bonus: For this, our first virtual show, we asked each storyteller that if we, the listeners, wished to summon them directly to our room what three items might we place in a magic circle to do so. As you see and will hear, a wide variety of ingredients are needed to complete the spell.

Top: Calvin S. Cato, Bottom: Nicole Shawan Junior

Switching it up, our next story takes us on a trip to the west coast where two lovers seek comfort in each other’s sanitized arms during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the backdrop of 2020’s chaotic energy, the two women must navigate their coping mechanisms, fears, and ultimately their love for each other in order to confront their futures — together or on their own.

Nicole Shawan Junior’s timely story, “Finding Our Way Back Home,” is read for us here by Calvin S. Cato.

Calvin’s reading was directed by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

No, YOU Tell It! “Coming & Going” was AN OFFICIAL 2020 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL EVENT and made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

October 13, 2020 1 comment Podcast Tags: , , , , , ,

Meet “Coming & Going” Storyteller Calvin S. Cato

Sep 30 2020 @ 7:30PM

How excited are we for our first story meeting tomorrow night! The storytellers are going to virtual meet each other for the first time and work together to develop their true-life tales on the page.

But, FIRST, meet our next storyteller Calvin S. Cato.

Calvin S. Cato has performed all across the United States and has even crossed the border into Canada. His television appearances include the Game Show Network, Oxygen’s My Crazy Love, National Geographic’s Brain Games, and an unaired pilot for Vice Media called Emergency Black Meeting. His comedy has been featured in numerous festivals including San Francisco Sketchfest, Austin’s Out of Bounds Comedy Festival, Brooklyn Pride, and the Women in Comedy Festival. In addition, you may have heard him overshare on many podcasts including Keith and The Girl, Guys We F*cked, RISK!, and Tinder Tales. In 2017, Calvin was named one of Time Out New York’s Queer Comics of Color to Watch Out For.

Event Information

Sep 30 2020 @ 7:30PM

Zoom! Meeting ID: 976 7999 6439 Password: storyswap

September 15, 2020 Post Comment Live Shows Tags: , ,