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).
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!
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 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. 💓
We've been sitting on something exciting... and we're finally ready to share! In 2023, our focus was on building a new home for Firestorm. Well, our next big project will launch in January, reaching far beyond our local community: with your support, we're going to send thousands of books pulled from schools and classrooms in Duval County, Florida, back to the kids they were intended for!
It's kind of a wild story! Last winter our co-op was unexpectedly entrusted with 22,500 books for grades K-5 that would otherwise have been destroyed. More than half feature queer characters or history, and many revolve around Indigenous, Black, Brown, and Asian protagonists. That's 11,000 pounds of titles that right-wing politicians and small-minded school administrators conspired to keep out of the hands of young folks in one of Florida's most racially diverse counties.
We love giving away free books, but this project is a little complex because we're committed to getting as many of the books as possible to kids in Florida, and Duval County in particular. Packaging and delivering thousands of titles across state lines will take serious resources, so today we're launching a crowdfunding campaign to support the effort. Will you help us?