Beth Ann Jones–bass 
Joe Morris-guitar 
Anna Webber-tenor saxophone, flute 
Matthew Rousseau-drums 
Joe Morris-bass, compositions 
Michelle Phương Hồ is the author of Bone Symphony, forthcoming from BOA Editions in Fall 2026.
Her work appears in Nat Brut, Ninth Letter, Poetry, Volume, and elsewhere. It has been recognized with the 2024 Ninth Letter Literary Award in Poetry, the 2024 BRINK Literary Journal Award for Hybrid Writing, and the 2020 Frontier Poetry Industry Prize. She received her MFA in poetry from NYU.
Born to Vietnamese refugees, she lives in New Haven, CT, where she gathers writers and artists for workshops, readings, and meals.
Scott Frey is a poet and educator who grew up in Western Pennsylvania and lives in Granby, CT. His book, Heavy Metal Nursing, won the 2023 Tampa Review Prize for poetry. His hybrid chapbook, Strange Vigil, was a winner in the Black River Chapbook competition and is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press this fall, 2025.
His work has been featured in journals such as Passages North, Bellevue Literary Review, The Adroit Journal, and The Missouri Review, where he was awarded the 2023 Perkoff Prize for poetry.
He teaches English at Pine Meadow Academy in Windsor Locks, CT. He and his wife also run a non-profit charity, The Charlotte Frey Foundation, whose mission is to help children with multiple handicaps and life-threatening illnesses improve their quality of life.
— About Riverwood Poetry Series The Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to promoting and appreciating poetry in Connecticut. RPS, Inc. is invested in providing entertaining and thought-provoking programming while responding to the needs of our neighbors through community outreach and collaboration. From their Facebook page: “The Riverwood Poetry Series has innovated many programs since our inception, all free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.”
Dan Blacksberg-trombone 
Carlos Santiago-violin 
Joe Morris-guitar 
Papo Vázquez is a trombonist, composer, and arranger with over 40 years of a career spanning Jazz, Latin, and Afro-Caribbean music. Papo is a National Endowment for the Arts Master Artist and Grammy Nominee and was featured in the 2020 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll.
“En fin, Vázquez junto a sus Mighty Pirates Troubadours e invitados exponen un proyecto exquisito y cadencioso que se transforma en un banquete para los amantes del género.” – El Vocero, 2020 (In short, Vázquez along with his Mighty Pirates Troubadours and guests present an exquisite and lilting project that becomes a banquet for lovers of the genre.)•Musical Director for the National Puerto Rican Day Parade Orchestra, (NYC/WABC) 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 •Commissioned by Wynton Marsalis to compose music for Jazz and Art series, conducted and performed with J@LC orchestra, CD release August 2019 •New York Pops Education, Board of Education certified, 2018 and 2019 •Commissioned new music for Afro Latin Jazz Alliance for “Nueva Musica” concert series •Grammy nominated for Papo Vázquez’ Mighty Pirates, Marooned/Aíslado, 2008 Papo was deeply moved by jazz at a young age. His appreciation and knowledge of the indigenous music of the Caribbean provides him with a unique ability to fuse Afro-Caribbean rhythms with freer melodic and harmonic elements of progressive jazz. Learn more about Papo by visiting his website. — Real Art Ways le da la bienvenida de regreso al trombonista, compositor y arreglista Papo Vázquez a nuestro concierto anual y parranda navideña. Parranda de aguinaldo (música folclórica navideña), es una forma musical afro-indígena que se toca en temporada de vacaciones en varios países del Caribe y América Latina, incluidos Puerto Rico, Cuba, Trinidad y la zona costera de los estados de Aragua y Carabobo en Venezuela.
Frank Pepe archival photo
Modern Apizza archival photo
Sally’s Apizza archival photo
— Live demo & tasting by: 
Pizzas provided by: 
— 
Hailing from Hartford, Tony Davis is an internationally acclaimed guitarist, vocalist, composer, and producer based in New York City. He has performed at prestigious venues including The Blue Note, The Village Vanguard, Smalls, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Birdland, and at major festivals such as the Newport Jazz Festival and the Greater Hartford Jazz Festival. In 2016, he was recognized as a rising star guitarist at the Wes Montgomery Tribute Festival in Indianapolis, performing alongside legends of jazz guitar such as Bobby Broom, Peter Bernstein and Pat Martino. He has shared the stage with artists like Anderson .Paak, Christian McBride, Joe Farnsworth, George Coleman, Abraham Burton, Sullivan Fortner, and Steve Wilson. Davis’s music seamlessly blends Latin traditions, folk, rock, and classical influences with deep roots in jazz and blues, creating a unique and compelling voice in contemporary music. In 2020, he released his debut album Golden Year on Posi-Tone Records, followed by Daring Two Be (a duet with Brazilian vocalist Jamile Ayres) and Cloud Nova (2024) on La Reserve Records, marking his first major foray into the singer-songwriter realm. His forthcoming album Jessamine, set for release in Fall 2025, continues his evolution as a dynamic artist committed to pushing the boundaries of contemporary jazz and beyond. 
Hothead Paisan is an icon of the ’90s lesbian DIY scene, a patron saint of those who wonder if going off the deep end is the only sane response to life in modern America. Hothead begins in a murderous frenzy—taking out a variety of chauvinists and creeps—but soon deepens into a reflection on oppression, self-destruction, and living it up outside the conservative norms of the ’90s. Hothead’s rage is stoked by her inner demon, Personality #2, but sometimes tempered with the help of Roz, her friend who offers Zen wisdom and tough love, and Chicken, her cat and constant companion. — 
Diane DiMassa is an American artist and cartoonist best known for her contributions to alternative, feminist comic book sphere. She debuted her comic-zine Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist in 1991 and has illustrated several books, including Kathy Acker’s Pussycat Fever, Kate Bornstein’s My Gender Workbook, Anne Fausto-Sterling’s Sexing the Body, and Daphne Gottlieb’s Jokes and the Unconscious. Her artwork has been featured in numerous group and solo shows across North America.She lives in Bridgeport, Connecticut and San Francisco, California. 
Alex Dueben is a freelance writer and independent scholar based in New England who has written for The Believer, Vulture, The Millions, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Brooklyn Rail, and many other publications. He is the writer and editor of the artist monograph Hurricane Nancy. 
Stephen Haynes-trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn 
Jerome Deupree-drums 
Steve Lantner-piano 
Josh Roseman-trombone Joe Morris-bass 
Ciaran Berry was born in Dublin and grew up in Connemara and Donegal. He is the author of four collections of poetry, States (2025), Liner Notes (2018), The Dead Zoo (2013), and The Sphere of Birds (2008), all published by The Gallery Press. His work has been featured in AGNI, American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, Best of Irish Poetry, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry London, The Missouri Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, The Southern Review, and The Threepenny Review. The accolades his work has received include a Whiting Award, the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and two Pushcart Prizes. He lives with his family in West Hartford and co-directs the Creative Writing Program at Trinity College. 
Luisa Caycedo-Kimura is a Colombian-born writer, educator, and the author of All Were Limones (The Word Works, 2025), winner of the Hillary Tham Capital Collection competition. Other honors include a Connecticut Office of the Arts Emerging Recognition Award, a John K. Walsh Residency Fellowship at the Anderson Center, an Adrienne Reiner Hochstadt Fellowship at Ragdale, and a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship in Poetry. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net nominee, her poems appear in Four Way Review, Denver Quarterly, The Cincinnati Review, Shenandoah, Rattle, Mid-American Review, RHINO, and elsewhere. — About Riverwood Poetry Series The Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to promoting and appreciating poetry in Connecticut. RPS, Inc. is invested in providing entertaining and thought-provoking programming while responding to the needs of our neighbors through community outreach and collaboration. From their Facebook page: “The Riverwood Poetry Series has innovated many programs since our inception, all free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.” 
Sean Thomas Dougherty’s twenty books include The Dead are Everywhere Telling Us Things, winner of the 2021 Jacar Press Full Length Book Prize, and Death Prefers the Minor Keys from BOA Editions. His book The Second O of Sorrow (BOA Editions 2018) received both the Paterson Poetry Prize, and the Housatonic Book Award. His many awards include two Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowships, the Established Artist Fellowship for Northwest Pennsylvania, a US State Department Fulbright Lectureship, and the James Hearst Poetry Prize from North American Review. Dougherty teaches writing part-time for Western Connecticut State University’s Master of Fine Arts Program and works as a Med Tech and caregiver for people recovering from traumatic brain injuries in Erie, Pennsylvania. — About Riverwood Poetry Series The Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to promoting and appreciating poetry in Connecticut. RPS, Inc. is invested in providing entertaining and thought-provoking programming while responding to the needs of our neighbors through community outreach and collaboration. From their Facebook page: “The Riverwood Poetry Series has innovated many programs since our inception, all free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.” 
With performances by Ezra Moth, Maljo Blu, Mx. Ology, and Amygdala Presented in conjunction with Ezra Month’s immersive eco-art installation at Real Art Ways, Megafauna: a selection of biomimetic drag takes the sculptural and narrative elements of the exhibition and gathers them into a night of performance art. Considering drag as an artistic medium in its own right, each of the drag performers will stage a spectacle inspired by biological entities and processes. They will sing songs and tell stories about the sea and the sky, about fungus and bacteria, about algae and fish, about birds and bugs – all layered with a healthy dose of camp and queerness. 
A man and his sister discover something sinister in the skies above their California horse ranch, while the owner of a nearby theme park tries to profit from the mysterious, otherworldly phenomenon.
“Fearsomely entertaining, consistently thought-provoking and occasionally bloody scary.” – Observer (UK)
“A sharp, often funny meditation on the terrifying power of human connection.” – The Atlantic
Even as the central characters are enveloped by doom, Peele provides a haunting image of a black family that is both unsuspecting and frighteningly unfuckwithable.” – Harper’s Bazaar
93% on Rotten Tomatoes
Accompanied by her husband, son, and daughter, Adelaide Wilson returns to the beachfront home where she grew up as a child. Haunted by a traumatic experience from the past, Adelaide grows increasingly concerned that something bad is going to happen. Her worst fears soon become a reality when four masked strangers descend upon the house, forcing the Wilsons into a fight for survival. When the masks come off, the family is horrified to learn that each attacker takes the appearance of one of them.
“Peele seduces, subverts and manipulates audience expectations – as the masters Alfred Hitchcock, John Carpenter, and Stanley Kubrick did before him.” – IndieWire
“It’s a game-changer.” – Sydney Morning Herald
“By focusing the storyline on a particular form of racism — the kind that’s often disguised as peculiar envy — Get Out reveals something more insidious.” – Salon.com
“Beneath the beatific smile of 21st-century liberalism, Get Out finds the still grinning ghoulish skull of age-old servitude and exploitation unveiled during a rollercoaster ride into a very American nightmare.” – Observer (UK)
“Peele succeeds where sometimes even more experienced filmmakers fail: He’s made an agile entertainment whose social and cultural observations are woven so tightly into the fabric that you’re laughing even as you’re thinking, and vice-versa.” – TIME Magazine
98% on Rotten Tomatoes
Now that Chris and his girlfriend, Rose, have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway with Missy and Dean. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries leads him to a truth that he never could have imagined.
On Friday, July 18, 7 pm, we will present the film, followed by a Q&A with Jeff Bravin, the Executive Director of ASD. To attend this special screening event, we encourage you to purchase your tickets in advance. 