Living “books” to tell their life stories
This November you’ll have the opportunity to engage, first-hand, in the issue of bias through an event we’re co-hosting with the Duxbury Free Library called a Human Library®. In a Human Library®, members of the public—“readers”—meet in small groups with “books”—people who are willing to share their life experiences— to hear their stories and dialog with them about those experiences. In our Human Library®, we hope to have as many as 10 books available for you to interact with—people whose lives represent a range of identities and experiences with prejudice, such as a religious leader, a veteran, someone who has suffered from mental illness, and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Our Human Library® will be held on November 4th, from 1 to 4 pm, at the Duxbury Free Library, 77 Alden Street, Duxbury MA.
About the Human Library®
The Human Library® is a Danish not for profit learning platform that has hosted personal conversations designed to challenge stigma and stereotypes since 2000. The Human Library® events are places where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered. The Human Library® creates a safe space for dialogue where topics are discussed openly between human books and their readers. All of human books are volunteers with personal experience with their topic.
The Human Library® or “Menneskebiblioteket” as it is called in Danish, was created in Copenhagen in the spring of 2000. The original event was open eight hours a day for four days straight and featured over fifty different titles. The broad selection of books provided readers with ample choice to challenge their stereotypes and so more than a thousand readers took advantage leaving books, librarians, organisers and readers stunned at the reception and impact of the Human Library®. Since its inception in 2000, the Human Library® has hosted events in over 85 countries. To learn more about the Human Library® visit https://humanlibrary.org
What we hope to accomplish
As part of our mission to make Duxbury a safe and welcoming place for everyone, Duxbury for All partners with organizations that share our vision, such as the Duxbury Free Library, to bring creative ways for community members to engage in the issue of bias. Over the past three years we’ve co-hosted Listen/Reflect/Act events, Town-wide Book Reads, Zoom Discussions, and in-person Challenging Conversations.
We hope that the Human Library® will give scores of community members an opportunity to engage in the issue of bias, and through engagement, have a greater appreciation for the value of diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI), and work with us and our partners to promote DEI here in Duxbury, throughout the Commonwealth, and across the Nation.
How our Human Library® will work
Over the course of three hours you’ll have the opportunity to meet in small groups with different books who will share their life stories with you and then have a frank dialog with them about their life experiences, and how they have coped with bias. Think of this as very much like taking out a printed book from a library—you’ll be able to borrow a human being who will serve as an open book, giving you a chance to have conversations you’d not not normally have access to. When you finish each session, you put the book back and take out another. Each book in our event represents a group in our society that is often subjected to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination because of their lifestyle, diagnosis, belief, disability, social status, ethnic origin etc.
In our event, you’ll spend 15-20 minutes with each book. The rules are similar to a physical library: respect the book, be curious, bring the book back on time and in the same condition it was given to you. Both parties have the right to end the loan at any time.