Flag Burning With a Side of Potato Salad

From The Assembly

Firestorm Books, an anarchist bookstore collective in Asheville, capped off Labor Day with a potluck and burning the American Flag. The event was organized in response to President Donald Trump’s August 25 executive order declaring that his administration will “prosecute those who incite violence or otherwise violate our laws” while burning the flag.

Dispatches from Firestorm in Asheville, NC

From It's Going Down

Original title: “The Utopia we Dream of Becomes Most Visible in the Dark”: Dispatches from Firestorm in Asheville, NC

The following are several dispatches from Firestorm, a radical anarchist community center and cooperative bookstore in Asheville, NC, which in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, has become a growing hub of mutual aid and autonomous disaster relief efforts in the area. While these dispatches have been posted to social media, we are publishing them here so people have an opportunity to read them in their entirety.

How anarchists in North Carolina rescued books banned in Florida

From The Washington Post by By Lori Rozsa

A bookshop in left-leaning Asheville is now sending children’s books back to the Sunshine State

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — When the managers of a small bookstore in this Appalachian mountain town received a call from a distributor wondering if they could take in 22,000 books rejected by a Florida school district, it felt like a colossal ask.

Statement on Police Surveillance at Our Grand Opening

From Firestorm Books

The opening of our bookstore on Sunday had unexpected guests. Throughout the afternoon, a police drone hovered conspicuously over Haywood Road, directly in front of our shop. Occasionally it flew back to the nearby APD substation, only to be replaced a few minutes later. As we handed out homemade popsicles to celebrate our big day, some community members were alarmed. People wanted to know if the drone was ours. A neighbor arriving with her family asked if she and her children were being filmed.

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