Welcome Back Neighbors!

Last year, we co-hosted a storytelling fundraiser with AB United Way just before COVID-19 hit. It resulted in a capacity crowd at Villageworks in West Acton and a good amount of money raised to help people in need in the local community.

This year, as our event is online, we’ll miss the intimacy of spending time together, but we are able to open this up to a whole new and much larger audience. Tell your friends, wherever they may be, that they’re in for a fabulous night of true stories told live. In addition to several hand-picked first timers, we’ll be bringing back some of our favorite award-winning, featured tellers. You’re in for a treat.

We’re thrilled to include Groton-native and MSNBC’s “chart-throb” Steve Kornacki as a storyteller this evening. Steve has received well-deserved accolades for his work at NBC’s “Big Board” where he shares election statistics in real time. We congratulate him on his new gig, working the big board for NBC’s NFL Sunday night games.

Our theme for the evening is “Neighbors.” Our featured tellers include:

Matthew Dicks
Matthew is a 41-time Moth StorySLAM champion and six-time GrandSLAM champion whose stories have been featured on its nationally syndicated Moth Radio Hour and weekly podcast. One of his stories has also appeared on GBH’s “Stories From the Stage.” He is an elementary school teacher and the internationally bestselling author of the novels Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Something Missing, Unexpectedly, Milo, and The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs. He is the founder and Creative Director of “Speak Up,” a Hartford-based storytelling organization. Matt loves ice cream cake, golf, tickling his children, staring at his wife, and not sleeping.

Sara Sweet Rabidoux-Kelsey
Sara is a Moth MainStage performer and a GrandSLAM champion. She is the Co-Founder of Blind Tiger Tellers and once ruined the perfect chance to meet her idol, Billy Joel. When she’s not bartending at Logan Airport, Sara creates reenactments of scenes from The Handmaid’s Tale with Barbie dolls for her fan art account, @OfkensTale on Instagram.

Wes Hazard
A comic, storyteller, and actor who has appeared on ABC & PBS television, GBH “Stories from the Stage” co-host Wes Hazard brings wit, energy, and honesty to the stage. Named one of Boston’s “Five Comics to Watch” by The Boston Globe, he’s been heard on the Risk! podcast, The MOTH Podcast, and is a three-time Jeopardy! Champion.

Katie Liesener
2016’s Massmouth “Big Mouth-Off” champion Katie Liesener has performed in more than 80 shows across eight states. She is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and other publications.

And some local storyteller:
In addition to Fugitive’s featured storytellers, a few friends of AB United Way will be sharing their stories: Christine Schuster, President & CEO of Emerson Hospital; Elizabeth Li, Acton-Boxborough Regional High School Student; and Boxborough’s own Vivek Kadambi.

Window opens at 6:45. Come early to chat with friends.
Event starts at 7pm.
Suggested donation $25 per person.

Thanks to these local sponsors, 100% of the ticket sales will support local community initiatives: Acton Pharmacy; Bisousweet Confections; Circle Furniture; Coughlin, Sheff & Associates, P.C.; Enterprise Bank ; Gallant Insurance Agency; National Grid; Northeast Auto Inventories ; Papalia Plumbing & Heating; Purveyor of Promotional Products; and Steinberg-Lalli Charitable Foundation.