Join Cat Mahony at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts November 1st, 2018

Berks Bards is excited to welcome Cat Mahony! Join us at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts to hear selected poetry. Following her reading, we'll allow ANYONE to step up to the mic and read anything that moves them.

When: November 1st, 2018 at 6 pm
Where: GoggleWorks Center for the Arts Studio 420
201 Washington Street Reading PA 19601

Learn more about Cat Mahony before our event by reading more below:

Catherine Mahony, a writer of multiple genres, holds a Bachelor’s degree in professional writing from Kutztown University, and Associate’s degrees in communications and liberal arts from Reading Area Community College. Mahony is the winner of RACC’s Creative Writing Award for academic excellence for 2013 and 2014; her first chap book, Prior Restraints, was published that same year. You can also read Mahony’s award-winning poetry and fiction in “Lehigh Valley Vanguard” Agony and Ecstasy:Reflections of our Lives” Layers of Language” “Legacy” and “Shoofly.” Her creative nonfiction has been published in “Rag Queen Periodical.” Mahony has facilitated creative writing workshops in Studio B, Boyertown PA; Pagoda Writer’s Workshop; Reading, PA; Caron Treatment Center, Wernersville, PA; and Berks County Prison, Leesport, PA. She is currently establishing her creative writing program, Ebonybloodletting76, which brings creative writing lessons with a therapeutic twist to the under-served community. Mahony believes writing saved her life. She was diagnosed with Bipolar as well as Borderline Personality Disorder by the age of 16, and is a recovering heroin addict. By exposing her vulnerabilities through brutally honest writing, Mahony hopes she can help others who also may be struggling. She currently lives in Eastern, PA. With her son Alex.
Visit https://cmaho582.wixsite.com/ebonybloodletting76/blog/ to learn more!

Below is a sample of Cat Mahony's poetry:

Sewn Shut

By Cat Mahony
Such a familiar face,
Lips and eyes sewn shut.
Such familiar hands,
Crossed politely over a still chest.
Her skin
as taut as an African drum.
Her dress
something she would not be caught dead in.
She is silenced.
She is flawless.
She is beautiful.
The viewers can’t see from my vantage point.
My back pressed against ceiling tile.
My hair entwined in lighting fixtures.
Their words echo in her mind,
Words like;
Lost, hopeless, and tragedy.
Such a familiar face.
Lips quivering and eyes kaleidoscopes of tears.
Such familiar hands,
Fidgeting nervously in pockets.
Her skin
As white as a water lily.
Her dress
Something she would not be caught dead in.
She is silent.
She is innocent.
She is a mirror.
The viewers can’t see from her vantage point.
Her back to the wall as medics hurried in.
Her hair matted to wet cheeks.
Words echo in her mind,
Words like;
Orphan, motherless, and tragedy.