"And what I am going to tell you tonight is what I want all of you to know, about all of us,” said Michele Carlo.

Michele Carlo doesn't pull punches when talking about growing up Puerto Rican in The Bronx in the 1970s and 80s. Yep, she is definitely a native New Yorker.

"Listen to me for like five seconds and there's no other place that I can be from nut New York City," said Michele Carlo, Storyteller.   

Carlo is performing a stage adaptation of her book "Fish Out of Agua" as part of Frigid New York's 8th Gotham Storytelling Festival, Saturday night at the Kraine Theater in the East Village.

"In a cute little village in Puerto Rico, in a cute little white house, with a cute little white balcony, there lived a little cockroach named Martina," said Carlo while on stage.

Carlo began her career acting and then performance art with her character Carmen Mufungo, on the Lower East Side's Alternative Comedy Theater scene of the 90s. Afterwards, she decided to give traditional storytelling a try.

"I realized that a good story is a good story. No matter where it comes from. And I said okay maybe I could embrace some of these traditional Puerto Rican folktales and blend them with my stories," said Carlo.

Of her journey from Westchester Square in The Bronx to the School of Visual Arts to acting and the stages of the East Village and Lower East Side and beyond.   

“The show speaks to my specific experience as a Nuyorican in New York City that was too white to some in my family and a mystery to almost everyone else," said Carlo.

Carlo's show is part of six days of stories at the festival presented by Frigid New York, known for its Indie Theater festivals and productions.  

"It's really nice to be able to pick, handpick a small group of  people that are really good at what they do and put them on stage for a week to do it all together," said Erez Ziv, Managing Artistic Director, Frigid New York and Gotham Storytelling Festival.

The Krane Theater is located at 85 East 4th Street here in the East Village.

To find out more about Michele Carlo's and other performances at the festival just head to Frigid.nyc.