©2018 Michele Carlo                   

In 2003 I discovered a wonderful performing art form called storytelling at a Moth story slam. Back then the Moth wasn’t the international presence it is today, but a once-a-month gathering of friends and like-minded writer/performer folk at the Nuyorican Poet’s Café in New York City’s East Village. At those slams, I found the calling I’d been searching for since I decided to become a performer nearly a decade earlier. Telling stories came as naturally to me as breathing and I was thrilled to be part of this great new thing…until I discovered how wrong I was about storytelling being a “new thing.”

A fellow storyteller some of you may know, H.R. Britton, became involved with the Storytelling Center of NYC and introduced me to some of its members. Some were miffed at personal storytellers, feeling they were dismissive of traditional, world, folk and fairytale telling (truthfully, some were). Other members such as Barbara Aliprantis and Robin Bady embraced the “upstarts” and both have become greatly respected bridges between both story communities. H.R. then moved to Boston, joined MassMouth, and introduced me to Norah Dooley, Andrea Lovett, Bruce Marcus and Tony Toledo, among others. I’ve performed personal stories alongside all many times over the last few years. But even though I could appreciate that my new friends told both personal and traditional stories, I never thought the “other side” would have any appeal—or use for me. And then I was finally convinced this year to attend NEST: Sharing the Fire.

I went there with what I thought was an open mind. What I didn’t know was how much more my mind could be opened. Through workshops taught by Judith Heineman, Elisa Pearmain, and Papa Joe Gaudet and Nicolette Nordin-Healy, I’d learn how to incorporate a traditional tale into a personal narrative, the adjustments one must make when telling stories at an outdoor festival—and made a breakthrough with a personal story I’d been struggling with for over two years. What’s more, through seeing the multitude of performers at the story swaps, olios and other shows—people I knew and many others I didn’t—I learned that traditional and personal storytelling share one important truth: they both show how we humans are more alike than we’re different. I’d also never before thought any money or living could be made from stories. And then I found out about the many festivals happening across the U.S. each year and a whole new world of possibilities has opened up for me.

Yes, I’m a storyteller, a good storyteller. And now I may have become a better one. I’ll be doing a mix of traditional Puerto Rican folk tales along with my personal Nuyorican life tales at Clearwater-on-the-Hudson and a couple of other NYC story festivals this summer. And I wouldn’t have been open to that without my friends—and Sharing the Fire. Thank you and hope to see you again next year!

About Michele:

My first story experiences were as a child, listening to my grandmothers talk about their lives and families back in Puerto Rico and when they first came to the U.S. As an adult, I began telling stories at the Moth’s Story Slams (back when they were just once a month) and haven’t stopped since. Many of those stories became a book: Fish Out of Agua: My life on neither side of the subway tracks (Citadel/Kensington, 2010), about growing up as a redheaded Latina in a 1970s Irish/Italian NYC neighborhood.

My website: https://www.michelecarlo.com

Fish Out Of Agua show page: https://radiofreebrooklyn.com/show/fish-out-of-agua/

Archived podcast episodes: http://fishoutofagua.podomatic.com