I conceived of Verbatim // Text Sound Expo during the first year of the pandemic, with the intention of bringing together local small presses and record labels in an outdoor space to learn about each others’ work and trade books and tapes. The inaugural event took place in September 2021 at Station Bar, an old train station in Woodstock converted to a small concert space. Since then the event has grown significantly, and has moved to Opus 40 in Saugerties, the site of artist Harvey Fite’s magnificent bluestone sculpture covering 6.5 acres in the Northern Catskills.

Verbatim is an annual day-long market and performance festival featuring Hudson Valley & Catskills-based small presses and record labels. The market is accompanied by a schedule of performance across disciplines: poetry, music, sound art, and performance art. It is a gathering of bookmakers, soundmakers, poets, fabulists, DIY librarians, singers, and sprechstimmers, moving between & across domains of text and noise.

PAST PARTICIPANTS:
Argos Books
Belladonna*Collaborative
Black Sun Lit
dispersed holdings
Future Fields
Infrequent Seams
Lanesville Press
Model City Books
Notice Recordings
Pinsapo
PS Hudson
Shivastan
Station Hill
Topos
winds measure
1080 Press