“Stories create not just our perceived reality, but reality itself,” Maureen Cummins told me. It was an apropos moment to be pondering the power of stories—October 2018, campaign-for-life-or-death-of-democracy time in America. Cummins, best known for her visual art, was in the midst of a performance piece of sorts.

Shout Out Saugerties returns this month with plenty of creative experiences featuring arts and cultural events.

Led by a dedicated team of volunteers, this is the second year the Village of Saugerties becomes an ecosystem of workshops, discussions and programs featuring music, literary readings, visual art, crafts, film, culinary arts and performance.

When we think of a writer at work, we think of a solitary engagement with pen, or  typewriter, or computer keyboard, conducted in a private place, devoid, if possible, of ambient noise and external distractions. But starting on Wednesday morning, October 10, Maureen Cummins will be engaged in writing a work of nonfiction in full public view, seated in the window of Pig Bar & Grill on Partition Street in Saugerties. 

What do you do if you’re a performance artist, and you pass your local church and hear words in your head telling you to say all the Psalms in that church? Linda Mary Montano responded to this prompt by creating a performance outside the Vortex Theater in Austin, Texas, where she dressed as Saint Teresa and stood on a 14-foot lift to sing the Psalms seven hours a day for three days.