Tomorrow is the International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners (or, simply, June 11th, because the full name is a mouthful) and we're marking the date with a fundraiser!

Last year we raised almost $900 for freedom fighters inside the prison system, and this year we're aiming to break a grand by donating net proceeds from every single sale we make in-store and online!

Every book, t-shirt, sticker, or other item you purchase Wednesday will generate funds for prisoner commissary, legal defense, and other crucial support needs.

So, grab your next read, and then, if you're local, head next door to The Odd, where BRABC is organizing a benefit concert featuring four bands, local art, and a raffle. For more information on June 11th, check out https://june11.noblogs.org, where you can also find a list of individuals supported by the campaign.

#June11 #PoliticalPrisoners #StateRepression #Anarchism #FeministBookstore #FireToThePrisons #AbolishPrisons #MariusMason #FirestormCoop (- L)

On June 19th, we'll be hosting author Jacob Engelsman in conversation with local doula and lactation educator Corey Graywood. Together they'll be discussing Jacob's new book "Lactation for the Rest of Us," a guide for transmasculine parents, transfeminine parents, non-binary parents, queer parents, adoptive parents, and others who are often left out of conversations about chestfeeding.

At a time when the US government is rolling back trans health in devastating ways, this book offers queer and trans people access to leading-edge information about bodily autonomy!

To make this event more accessible, participants may attend in-person or join a live stream of the conversation on our YouTube channel. You can learn more about this event on our website at https://firestorm.coop/events/3402-chestfeeding-for-queer-trans-parents.html.

#QueerSouth #LactationConsultants #QueerParents #TransParents #QueerFamilies #FeministBookstore #FirestormCoop (- L)

Firestorm is turning seventeen

That's right! Our co-op is old enough to see an R-rated movie and operate a vehicle — and wise enough to know the most dangerous knowledge can be found in the pages of a book

Drop by this Saturday to enjoy 17% off everything in our store! Or use the promo code HAPPY17TH on our website.

At 5pm we'll bust out sugary treats (v + gf options) and grill up some vegan hotdogs.

Want to bring us a birthday present? We'd like to hear about a book you loved that came from our shop! Write us a short review (just a few sentences is fine) that can be printed for our shelves or posted online. You can read it out loud at the celebration or simply give it to us to read later.

#QueerBookstore #CoopsNotCops #FeministBookstore #FirestormCoop (-Esmé)

This Friday at 7pm, join us for a screening of "The Encampments," organized in collaboration with our friends at Asheville Jewish Voice for Peace! This 80-minute documentary offers a ground-level view of the 2024 US campus uprising against the war on Gaza. Featuring detained activist Mahmoud Khalil, alongside professors, whistleblowers, and organizers, "The Encampments" captures the deeper stakes of a historic moment that continues to reverberate across the globe.

This event is a fundraiser for the Gaza Soup Kitchen and attendees are asked to contribute based on their ability (suggested donation $10-20, no one turned away).

#TheEncampments #FreeSpeech #StudentProtest #FreePalestine #ColumbiaStudents #MahmoudKhalil #FeministBookstore #FirestormCoop (- L)

Tonight!

We're hosting @BlueRidgeABC for a 7pm screening of @subMedia's InterRebellium, Part 1. It's a story told through the eyes of anarchist and anticolonial participants of the 2019 uprising in the territories occupied by the state of Chile. This 90-minute viewing will be followed by discussion.

According to subMedia: "InterRebellium will cover the global wave of revolts from 2018-2020. The title is from Latin for 'between uprisings.' We believe it is important to take this time between waves relate our experiences on a worldwide scale, to study the last one so that we are better prepared for the next one."

More details can be found at https://firestorm.coop/events/3389-interrebellium-film-screening.html. Can't make the community screening? You can gather friends and screen the film yourself at https://sub.media.

Preorder Promo Order "The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice" before June 3rd and your copy will include an exclusive bookplate signed by the author! https://firestorm.coop/products/22746-the-immortal-choir-holds-every-voice-danielle-cain-3.html

We're just a little more than a month away from the release of @margaret 's next book and maybe like us, you've been waiting patiently for the last seven years to read this third title in the Danielle Cain series—or maybe you're a fan of Margaret's podcast but haven't yet gone in for the deep cuts. Either way, this book is for you! (We recommend going back to read the other two books in the series, but you can jump in anywhere.)

Trolls, lost comrades, murder faeries, small town punks, riot queers, and some fancy magic to boot, "The Immortal Choir" packs three intense short stories into a hundred pages. And in true Margaret Killjoy fashion, it blends dark fantasy, wry humor, and earnest reflections on friendship, self-discovery, and trying to change the world.

#Boosktagram #QueerFantasy #QueerSouth #QueerAppalachia #MargaretKilljoy #FeministBookstore #DanielleCain #FirestormCoop (- L)

Two weeks from today Firestorm will have the honor of hosting an incredible online panel for the release of historian Garrett Felber's new book with AK Press. "A Continuous Struggle" chronicles the life of Martin Sostre, an under appreciated legend in the history of anti-prison and Black freedom movements.

Garrett will be joined by writer William C. Anderson ("The Nation On No Map") and revolutionary elder Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin ("Anarchism and the Black Revolution"). Together they'll discuss Sostre's incredible life and legacy as a jailhouse lawyer, revolutionary bookseller, yogi, mentor and teacher, anti-rape organizer, housing justice activist, and original political thinker.

Don't miss this event! You can sign up and find a copy of "A Continuous Struggle" at https://firestorm.coop/events/3372-the-revolutionary-life-of-martin-sostre.html. Can't make the event live? Register anyway and we'll send you a recording when we post it!

#BlackFreedomMovement #BlackAnarchism #PoliticalPrisoners #BlackPower #FeministBookstore #PrisonAbolition #MartinSostre #LorenzoKomboaErvin #FirestormCoop (- L)

Care to join us for a two part discussion of Robin Wall Kimmerer's "The Serviceberry"? Our Disaster Reading Group, which has been meeting since shortly after Hurricane Helene, has picked this essay-length book on mutuality in nature for the May 12th and June 2nd meetings! This is a perfect chance for new folks to jump in

As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”

"The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World" is a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world. This series is co-facilitated by Lauren Miller.

On May 12th, we're discussing pages 1 through 50 but you're welcome to join us even if you can't complete the reading! Learn more and find discounted copies of the book at https://firestorm.coop/events/3392-the-serviceberry-a-disaster-reading-group.html

#AllFlourishingIsMutual #MutualAid #TheServiceberry #HurricaneHelene #GiftEconomy #Mutualism #FeministBookstore #FirestormCoop (- L)

At the end of last year, while reading Rebecca Solnit's "A Paradise Built in Hell," many of us encountered the idea of "post-traumatic growth"—a sort of inverse PTSD, where individuals experience increased resilience, strengthened relationships, and personal empowerment as a result of a traumatic event. Excited by this phenomenon (and our own brush with it), a member of our reading group has worked with a friend in clinical psychology to facilitate a presentation and deeper conversation about the power of community in uncertain times.

Please join us on Tuesday at 6:30pm for an in-person discussion and workshop that draws on academic research and our own experiences as disaster survivors to explore the idea of post-traumatic growth!

More information can be found at https://firestorm.coop/events/3381-together-we-rise.html

#PostTraumaticGrowth #PTSD #HurricaneHelene #MutualAid #MutualAidDisasterRelief #WeKeepUsSafe #FeministBookstore #FirestormCoop (- L)

Next weekend Firestorm will be hosting author David Vaina for an in-person conversation with local Appalachian organizers about his new book "On-Ramps to a New Civil Society: Mutual Aid at the Edges of the Anthropocene," an autonomist reimagining of labor, value, mutual aid, and revolution. They'll discuss the present moment of institutional decline, where a political void has emerged in addressing our collective needs, and how mutual aid can contribute to the development of a radically new society.

Learn more and find copies of "On-Ramps to a New Civil Society" at https://firestorm.coop/events/3331-mutual-aid-revolution-a-conversation-with-david-vaina.html.

#MutualAid #DualPower #MutualAidDisasterRelief #HurricaneHelene #FeministBookstore #FirestormCoop (- L)

Many of us have been practicing mutual aid, from Hurricane Helene in Appalachia to Hurricane Sandy in NYC, from food to book shares, but can mutual aid be a political force in a moment when government has all but collapsed?

Next Wednesday, Firestorm is excited to host Lux editor-in-chief Sarah Leonard in person for a conversation with local friends from Mergoat Magazine and Pansy Collective! They'll be launching the newest issue of Lux, a feminist magazine of politics and culture, and talking about how to take mutual aid practices beyond mere survival.

Learn more and submit an optional RSVP at https://firestorm.coop/events/3352-mutual-aid-against-catastrophe.html.

#MutualAid #FeministMagazine #LuxMagazine #FeministBookstore #FirestormCoop (- L)