A Raleigh Black-owned children’s bookstore plans to reopen after closing its doors to its downtown location last year.
“We will find our place; we will find the place that was designed for us,” Victoria Scott-Miller told WRAL in 2024.
A promise kept, and the location is just as central to the story.
Liberation Station plans to reopen in Montague Plaza, a 15,000 square foot space in Southeast Raleigh dedicated to housing Black-owned businesses.
“We’re excited to bring authors and illustrators back to the city of Raleigh, especially southeast Raleigh,” she said.
Scott-Miller and her husband discovered a need in the Triangle for kids’ books featuring children of color. The two started selling books out of their trunk, and then in pop-up stores before moving to a location in downtown Raleigh.
However, a year after they started, they say they faced such a barrage of racism and threats they decided to close. The feeling Scott-Miller said was devastating.
“We had to close not because we failed, we had to close because our nervous systems have been broken,” she said. “There was such a disruption of peace that we felt that we could not effectively serve our community.”
As painful as the closure was, Scott-Miller said she felt it was necessary because it gave an opportunity to reassess.
“I’m grateful that we had an opportunity to step back and that we had a community that loves us so much that they allowed us to rest, they allowed us to pause and reimagine what it could look like, um, not only the bookstore, but then our own personal safety.”
Scott-Miller said their new location will be three times the size of their original location in downtown Raleigh. She said the space itself feels like a haven for children to feel seen and represented.
“Bookshelves are a form of protest and liberation and joy,” she said. “So, the fact that they get to see themselves in our store, on every single corner of our store, every shelf is dedicated to the experience of Black childhood.”
Liberation Station will reopen on Juneteenth next year.
Scott-Miller said they plan to expand programming to include story times and author workshops with kids.
Scott-Miller said they are fundraising as they are preparing to reopen next June. There is a GoFundMe link to help get them going. Community members can also join the Ko-Fi Membership program to create long-term sustainability through community-based support.