Event Details

When: Tuesday, June 11, 2024 5:30pm to 8:30pm

Where: Pond House Cafe at Elizabeth Park, West Hartford CT (Directions)

 Price: $100/person

Parking: Free parking

Event Schedule for “A Summer Evening of Art and Storytelling”
Doors Open – 5:30 pm
Art Exhibition,  Appetizers, Music, Silent Auction – 5:30 to 7:00 pm
CPA Formal Program – 7:00 to 7:30 pm
Matt Dick’s “Speak Up” Show –  7:30 pm
Dessert to Go – 8:30 pm
Pick Up some delicious Ice cream on your way home!


About Speak Up
: About Speak Up: Matt Dicks’ “Speak Up” Storytellers, our featured entertainment, will be a humorous and heartfelt evening of storytelling. Professional storytellers, including Matt, and CPA performers brand new to his show, tell hilarious, heartfelt, true stories without notes. These stories will make you laugh, think, reconsider, and maybe even shed a tear or two. Beautifully crafted stories designed to touch your heart and mind. It will be an unforgettable night of entertainment and human connection. Speak Up shows are produced and directed by Matthew Dicks – an internationally-known bestselling author, 60-time Moth StorySLAM winner, and 9-time GrandSLAM champion.

The Storytellers:

Matthew Dicks, founder and artistic director of Speak Up
Jeni Bonaldo, English & Creative Writing teacher at Amity High School
Marcus Burrus, Navy veteran, retired police officer and Security Officer at West Hartford High
Kaia Pazdersky, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter
Tracie Bernardi Guzman, CPA Case Manager at the Waterbury Reentry Welcome Center and Prison Arts Alumni Artist
Robin Ledbetter, CPA Case Manager at the Hartford Reentry Welcome Center 

“Freedom. Freedom. Although there was no freedom, it was freedom. For me, it was freedom…freedom of expression. You felt like a normal person. I felt like a normal person.”  – Juan Torres, Prison Arts