Full circle moment
This late fall and early winter brought with it some of the most profound overwhelm and exhaustion I’ve seen during the pandemic so far. It was painful, and folks were BEYOND ready to rest at the end of 2021.
As 2022 has gotten started, a few seeds that were planted a looooong time ago have sprouted into some exciting projects that I’m excited to share with you all.
In collaboration with Ping Chong + Company, a documentary theater company, I developed a 2-part series to support NYC Teaching Artists to do their work this year, in the extremely stressful environment of K-12 public education. Doing this very work myself, with this amazing organization, is what prompted me to return to grad school to learn more, and I’m really thrilled at the opportunity to share back what I learned there.
It also gave me the opportunity to write a new bio, which I always find to be its own exercise in the power of storytelling and narrative. This is what felt right at this time:
Carly McCollow, LMSW (she/her/ella) is a New York-based facilitator and consultant. Pursuing theater at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she quickly learned that she felt more alive working in communities than on productions. She completed teaching artist development programs with Ping Chong + Company (PC+C)'s Summer Institute and Community Word Project's Teaching Artist Training and Internship Program (TATIP) and went on to work with PC+C, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), The Shakespeare Society, Girls Leadership, Arts for All, The Healing Arts Initiative, and The Moth, where she was a Lead Coach in storytelling work with the National Aphasia Association. Out of a desire to take more responsibility for the healing happening in her storytelling and documentary theater work, Carly studied Social Work at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, and is now a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW). She has since served as the Program Director of after-school programs in Lower Manhattan with Educational Alliance, and served as a facilitator and coach for educators and after-school programs about trauma-informed work, social and emotional development, racial equity, and restorative justice with Ramapo for Children and in her own consulting practice. Most recently, she cofacilitated a PC+C residency with elders on the Lower East Side titled Artful Storytelling: Fromings & Goings. She currently serves as the Director of Resilience and Trauma-Informed Initiatives for Ramapo for Children. In her consulting practice, she is collaborating with NYC Pride/Heritage of Pride and is also supporting a family through restorative processes after an experience of sexual harm. www.carlymccollow.com