Songs & Stories.
Alhambra, California: Ophelia Press, 2025. One of 33 copies, numbered and signed by the author, and by the printer, Farida Sunada. Illustrated by eight collages, made from the papers of Japan, Korea, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, Spain, England, France, and Bangladesh. Printed on Twinrocker Handmade Paper (abaca). Handset in Dante type, designed by Giovanni Mardersteig and cast by The Letterfoundry of Michael and Winifred Bixler in Skaneateles, New York. Photograph of the author in the All Souls Day collage by Ron Espiritu. A fine copy in publisher's original box. With original prospectus laid in. Accompanied by a CD of Espiritu's album, Put Back Charlie, and digital downloads of the songs. Belgian flax wrappers by Cave Paper in Tucson. Quarto. 12 1/8 x 9 1/8.". [32] pp. Item #18036
Aireene Espiritu is an Oakland-based Filipino-American singer-songwriter. She has performed widely throughout California and the Pacific Northwest. Her band is called Aireene and The Itch. Her website does not note her date of birth or educational background. The Los Angeles Times described her as follows: “Folk singer-songwriter Aireene Espiritu works in the elemental substance of vernacular American music with an uncanny ease. Whether blues, hillbilly, soul, folk or R&B...demonstrates masterly command of each. Her original compositions mix deft lyrical construction and classic form just as impressively...An authentic, authoritative vocalist and with distinctly sensitive manner of phrasing...”.
Farida Baldonado Sunada is the proprietor of the Ophelia Press. She retired from her longtime job as an administrator at UCLA to pursue her passion for letterpress printing. Her first book, The Gods by Ronald Koertge, was published in 2017, to wide acclaim. This, her second book, was nine years in the making. She has also printed poetry broadsides and assisted in the binding of books for Carolee Campbell's Ninja Press in Sherman Oaks.
Price: $600.00