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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