Singing is my personal dragon: a problem with inflamed resonance in my daily life. When I arrived at Omega, I was there, straight-up, in the role of seeker and supplicant. This was Omega, an institution in the direct line of descent of 20th-century psychology, especially the humanistic and integrative psychology of its second half. I fully expected that my traumas and histories would be invoked. I expected to tell my singing story, which is something I am good at and easy with – unlike, say, singing itself.

Saturday, Oct. 5: Among its many other notable offerings, the Shout Out Saugerties event series has provided the songwriter Laura Stevenson a chance to play a true hometown show.

Saturday, Oct. 5: Prior experience is not required; neither is a partner. This special dance celebrates Got2Lindy’s 15th anniversary.

I went to Omega to attend Claude Stein’s three-day “The Natural Singer” workshop. Had it been for any reason other than singing, I might have come equipped with some critical detachment, an analytical readiness to “read” this place and its people, its language, its demographics, its style and its values, like some rural smartass who had attended half a lecture on Roland Barthes 25 years ago. I am no hardened skeptic or serial debunker (who has the time or the authority for that?), but I might have gone hunting for a playful and unorthodox “take.” That’s my brand, you see.