March 2023 - Featured Artist - Deirdre McCarthy
About the Artist
Deirdre McCarthy has spent her academic and professional life as an educator of all things communication based framed within a creative context. Her 20+ years as a college professor have include a wide range of courses covering multiple subjects; the most intricate aspects of interpersonal communication through the most public of public speaking as well as dramatic studies covering every aspect of performance such as: film, Stage and voice over.
Deirdre performs her poetry weekly in Cambridge, MA and in Lowell, MA and has won slam poetry contests in both cities.
In addition to her work on the collegiate level, Deirdre has worked as a professional coach specializing in Corporate communication at both the company and individual level and performance training for working actors as well as those looking to break into the business. Beginning as the lead coach of a top Boston studio before branching out on her own to launch her own studio, Face2face Pro. Here, she continues to teach and coach others in performance while also offering clients Life Writing sessions, allowing people to explore themselves and use life experiences to create poetry, or stories.
Featured Poem - What I Know For Sure
I know Cleopatra is rattling in my bones
With her I learn to stand like a queen
She teaches the art of dignity even when love betrays
I hear Helen of Troy whisper secrets in my soul
They are a siren call that inspires sacrifice
Leads the hypnotized to lay their hearts at my feet
Fierce Medea? She tends to the embers of my ever-present anger
Keeping them at a slow burn
She explodes to the surface, filled with flame, whenever she hears the call
I am shards of woman real and myth, Strength and fury
sharp edges and the bitter taste of those that won’t comply
Even my pores absorb the energy of resistance, reincarnating the warrior within
I feel my feet follow in the footsteps of Joan of Arc
Crossing the ravaged battlefield of my beliefs
Steady and unwavering even when they lead me to the burning stake
The tapestry that tells my story is woven with images of fire and blood
Made with thread that cuts as much as it creates
Beauty and pain, bravery and heartbreak captured in each perfect stitch
Notice how I leave it on the wall for those who follow
Knowing they will choose to wrap themselves in the cloth
Letting the dye sink into their soft skin, this is my mark
Carrying the heavy rusted armor of valor turned angry
I have become Grace O’Malley The pirate queen
Building barricades of Castles, growing fiercer each day
You see I’m not a solitary woman but a link in a chain, part of a net
Forged from personal metal, with each piece it gets heavier but stronger
More difficult to carry but harder to break