By Sarah Honosky, August 29, 2023
ASHEVILLE – In the cracked asphalt of the parking lot across the street, potholes filled with gravel, weeds poking through hot cement, Libertie Valance can point to a kind of before-and-after. It’s what the frontage of their building used to look like: the former site of Dr. Dave’s Automotive, now the new location of Firestorm Books.
What was a time-worn West Asheville lot and 1956 garage on the corner of Haywood Road and Covington Street has been transformed into an open, airy building and outdoor space — home to Asheville’s own queer, anarchist, feminist bookstore, which first opened downtown in 2008 as a worker-owned and self-managed business.
Valance is among the collective members and worker/owners at the 15-year-old cooperative and led a brief tour of the building in August: around light wood-tone shelves, delineating the bright interior, the nook of children’s picture books below an open loft, and through the open garage doors.
