We know that book bans aren’t limited to schools; they stretch behind bars, too. So this June 11, on International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners (@june11), along with our friends at @BlueRidgeABC and Tranzmission Prison Project, we’re hosting a Banned Books Back! packaging party to raise funds for freedom fighters inside the prison system. Anyone, near or far, can pledge a donation for every book bundle we pack, starting at 5 cents per bundle. Sign up now at https://bit.ly/j11-pledge! Our co-op is matching $1 per bundle 💸

Community members are invited to join us at 5:30 pm for food, informal conversations, and free literature about June 11. Then, at 6:30 pm, pitch in on the fun of packaging free chapter books for kids in Florida!

Free minds, free them all, until all are free!

To learn about the history of June 11, see https://june11.noblogs.org 🏴

#June11 #PoliticalPrisoners #StateRepression #Anarchism #BookBan #FeministBookstore #MariusMason #BannedBooksBack #FirestormBooks

It’s been such a special experience to collaborate with @firestormcoop on dreaming up #BannedBooksBack and then engaging in months of work to make sure that many thousands of books removed from Florida classrooms are put directly back into many thousands of kiddos’ hands into that not-so-sunshiny state. So few antifascist actions these days feel successful, much less heartwarming, but our #TrashFascismNotBooks has been both!

Indeed, I could (and someday, maybe should) share countless stories of all the sweetness that Banned Books Back has generated, from the cutest and queerest Girl Scout troop eagerly helping to package up books, to community members drawing adorable pictures on the book bundle packages that we then shipped as #SolidarityBeyondBorders across state lines, to being reminded by so many folks in Florida that they are (and were) resisting book bans and all the ways such “book burning” ends up burning ideas, spaces, and people. (This is just a tiny sampler!)

And while it’s not a “contest” over which moment in the Banned Books Back saga has been the tenderest, I’m feeling especially proud, in a #BeGayDoCrime sort of way, of our latest creative scheme for our second-to-last volunteer book packaging party: #PledgeAgainstPrisons. In partnership with @BlueRidgeABC and @tranzmissionprisonproject, we’re connecting the dots between book bans in prisons and schools, and how fascism harms people in both, by encouraging folks—near and far—to make a pledge per book bundle packaged (up to 250 bundles) on June 11, the International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. (See @june11 and @supportmariusmason.)

Come in person to Firestorm to learn about June 11 and the anarchist freedom fighters who are incarcerated, eat some yummy free food, and package a bunch of books! And/or no matter where you live, pledge 5 cents, 25 cents, a dollar, etc. per book bundle sent, and we’ll donate all funds raised to anarchist prisoners.

See pledge form at http://bit.ly/j11-pledge

Free minds, free them all, until all are free!

#EducatingOurselvesForFreedom
#BooksNotBombs
#BooksNotBars
#AlwaysCarryABooks

Happy Birthday Firestorm! 16 never felt so sweet 🥳🧁

While it might seem like a blink of an eye to an Ageless Immortal Being like Julius here, 16 years is a ripe old age for a radical bookstore! We've watched many incredible community fixtures come and go in Asheville over the years. We know it is thanks to the ongoing support of our readers (not to mention blood, sweat, and tears from the determined workers of Firestorm past) that we still stand to tell tales of the olden days. Did you know someone used to have to haul a bag of ice from the gas station at the beginning of every shift to keep the drinks cold? Woof!

They walked (up a hill, literally and figuratively) so we could run and Julius could tippy tap around this beautiful renovated fill station turned neighborhood bookstore. I wonder what the founding members would have said if they knew that in 16 years Firestorm would own our own building and have the infrastructure to attempt wildly ambitious projects like distributing thousands of free banned books across state lines?

In this spirit of wonderment and celebration, we'll be adding a festive flare to our banned books packaging party tomorrow! Enjoy a gluten-free (or a gluten-full) vegan cupcake from Short Street Cakes and share a favorite memory you have of Firestorm. Did you have a go-to menu item from Firestorm's cafe? Was Firestorm the venue of your first date with your sweetie? We want to know!

https://firestorm.coop/events/3214-banned-books-back-packaging-party.html

We feel proud, we feel grateful, and we feel a tad unsettled by the way our toothless collective-mate is gumming their pupcake with such gusto. Heck, if a sweet 16 party isn't a good reason for a little dietary indiscretion, we don't know what is!

#BannedBooksBack #BannedBooks #FeministBookstore #QueerBookstore #FirestormCoop (-Esme)

You asked for ‘em, and now we’ve got ‘em:
#TrashFascismNotBooks shirts!

All sales benefit the #BannedBooksBack project, sending free bundles of books that were removed by fash-y types from Florida classrooms back to kids in Florida! Poetic justice! Or in this case, possum justice!

Because our ungovernable possums love to read “subversive” books and, of course, are sometimes antisocial, but always antifascist.

Be the cool kid who sports one of our T-shirts, pullover hoodies, or sweatshirts, and know that you’re also supporting this warm-and-fuzzy @firestorm project (https://firestorm.coop/bannedbooks.html).

To order shirts, scurry over to:
https://www.bonfire.com/bannedbooksback/

(Possum art+design by @des.tattooart)

How many banned books can a room of dedicated volunteers pack in an hour? Yesterday we found out! 💪📦

At our first Banned Books Back! packaging party, community members turned out in droves to sort through dozens of cartons of books removed from Duval County Public Schools in Florida. Together we prepped 642 chapter books and 936 picture books to return to young readers. Despite the chill in the air—and the Christofascism in the political system—the mood was festive. Participants jumped in, swapping tips and innovating strategies to ensure that each box was lovingly assembled, filled with beautiful stories, and addressed to a child in Florida.

As the pugilistic unicorn puts it in our fave kids zine: "Not everyone fights how I fight, but all unicorns fight because we are magical creatures and as magical creatures we believe in a better world." Yesterday we fought by sending banned books back to kids, because we're also magical creatures who believe in a better world!

Find more about our campaign at https://firestorm.coop/bannedbooks.html.

#BannedBooksBack #AntiFacism #BannedBooks #DuvalCounty #FeministBookstore #Firestorm Coop (- L)

Trash Fascism, Not Books! 🗑️

This benefit sticker supports our Banned Books Back! campaign to return books banned by Duval County Public Schools to kids! All proceeds go to cover postage, packaging materials, printing, and related campaign costs.

Printed by Off Color Decals on high-quality vinyl with eco-solvent inks, this kiss-cut sticker features an adorable antifascist possum illustration by Des. The removable 3" sticker is waterproof and safe for outdoor use. It is also scratch and UV fade resistant for up to 5 years of extreme cuteification of your car, laptop, or water bottle!

We’re almost 80% funded! Help us get all the way by heading to https://firestorm.coop/products/21029-banned-books-back-benefit-sticker.html

#BannedBooksBack #TrashFascismNotBooks #FreedomToRead #BannedBooks #MutualAid #DuvalCounty #DuvalCountyPublicSchools #FeministBookstore #FirestormCoop (-Esmé).

Join our first Banned Books Back! packaging party and help us send books removed from Florida public schools back to kids in Florida! On Sunday, January 28th from 11am - 2pm ET we'll be packaging free picture books and chapter books along with zines and stickers. No experience is necessary, we'll show you how it's done! 🫡

For the past few weeks we've been collecting requests from kids and their advocates in Florida and at we've got a backlog of hundreds of orders to fulfill! Do you read the news about the rise in book-banning in our region and want to do something about it? Now is your chance!

Invite your friends of all ages! https://firestorm.coop/events/3139-banned-books-back-packaging-party.html

#BannedBooksBack #TrashFascismNotBooks #FreedomToRead #BannedBooks #MutualAid #DuvalCounty #DuvalCountyPublicSchools #FeministBookstore #FirestormCoop (Esme)

We just passed the halfway point of our fundraising goal for Banned Books Back! Moms for Liberty, eat your hearts out! 😏

To recap, our collective received a serendipitous donation of children's books that had been removed from Florida schools as part of an ongoing effort to censor titles depicting queer joy, civil rights history, immigrant stories, and more. Right now, our collective is harboring dozens of boxes of these "dangerous" titles — but not for long. Later this month, we'll be calling on our local community to help package bundles and send these Banned Books... Back!

Thank you so much to the folks who have boosted this effort, including but not limited to Autostraddle, The Washington Post, LGBTQ Nation, so many rad bookseller buddies, and the 270+ folks who've donated. 💓

You can still help by contributing to the crowdfunding campaign (https://givebutter.com/bannedbooksback), or request a book package directly if you're a kid or for a kiddo in your life through https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/XYzGVoEYnT+hkblrTJy2D8aYzHb295vmVgyJc0NTz+0

Keep reading dangerously, kids! If it didn't matter, they wouldn't try so hard to stop you 👀

#BannedBooksBack #TrashFascismNotBooks #FreedomToRead #BannedBooks #MutualAid #DuvalCounty #DuvalCountyPublicSchools #FeministBookstore #FirestormCoop (Esme)

I’d say this possum is “cute as a button,” but it’s actually a sticker—and yeah, cute too!

Now you can take our antifascist critter home, plus not have to worry about it scratching up your furniture, although it is scratch and UV fade resistant for up to 5 years. (And fascist resistant for as long as it takes.)

Our ungovernable and gender-nonconforming possum is always up for good mischief, such as playing A-team mascot for our Banned Books Back project (“our” as in @firestormcoop with me as collaborator), which will return 22,500 books back to kids after a mean-spirited school district in Florida tried to trash these titles because of their “dangerous” content. Read: stories that revolve around queer, trans, Indigenous, Black, Brown, and other people that fascists tend not to like.

But our possum proudly and loudly proclaims, “Trash Fascism, Not Books!” Because as every smart creature knows, dumping/burning/disappearing books and their ideas goes hand in hand (or paw in paw) with doing the same to people.

You can read lots more about Banned Books Back in the links in my bio, and from there, also kick into our fundraiser and/or fill out our encrypted request form (kids, we’re looking at you!) for a free book bundle—either for picture books or chapter books. And please help us spread the word to kiddos and adults in Florida, because that’s where our first 500 book bundles are going so as to re-home these books to the un-sunshiny state that attempted to ban them.

Back to our possum, though!

If you want to scoop up this cuddly character and support Banned Books Back, $10 gets you this limited edition “kiss-cut” sticker printed by the rad folks at @offcolordecals, using our logo art by the equally rad @des.tattooart! Just high tail it to:

https://firestorm.coop/products/21029-banned-books-back-benefit-sticker.html

Order soon, order often (the more possums, the more mayhem)!

love+solidarity 🖤

#BannedBooksBack
#TrashFascismNotBooks
#AllCrittersAreBeautiful

#FirestormCoop #FirestormBooks
#BannedBooksBack!
https://givebutter.com/bannedbooksback

#books #childrensbooks

A project in 2024 to get books into the hands of kids.

Firestorm needs our help.