War on Books opened a bricks-and-mortar location earlier this spring at 425 Campbell Avenue Southwest, B04, in Roanoke, Va. The Roanoker reported that writer and editor Angelo Colavita "has spent the better part of his adult life involved in the bookselling business. Originally from Philadelphia, he worked at six different bookstores before moving to Roanoke and founding War on Books, a mobile shop that specializes in selling independent, radical literature with the goal of bringing new and underrepresented ideas to light."
Colavita said his shop has always been about providing a sanctuary for the community to explore literature that can help them garner knowledge that empowers them to challenge widely accepted ideologies and to spark important conversations. "I've seen a six-foot folding table with a few crates of books become a safe place for leftists and right-wingers to interact, to ask questions of each other that maybe, for whatever reason, they felt unable to ask under other circumstances. They've told me so," he said.
He also noted the atmosphere created by the bookshop's location, a compact, half-underground basement: "Even some of the lighting in the common area has total bomb shelter vibes. Kinda fits in with War on Books' 'underfunded Cold War program' aesthetic, right?"
Colavita plans to continue featuring the store's pop-ups. The new space is home to War on Bookclubs, which meets monthly, and will also soon be the gathering place for A Page Against the Machine, a writing workshop guided by Colavita that will "help you turn your political tirades into refined, meaningful works of literature."
He added: "This is as much a personal journey of discovery and expression through art and writing as it is a direct, militant, antifascist effort as it is a cool place to just hang out and meet people as it is a retail shop. I can't wait to see how far I can take it, honestly."