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Human Library Lets You Check Out People From All Walks Of Life For A Chat
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Huffington Post
Posted: November 28th, 2016
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/human-library-copenhagen...
You shouldnt judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to other people, sometimes we do. Ronni Abergel a 42-year-old from Copenhagen, Denmark, is trying to change that with the Human Library, a place where individuals can check out people, or human books, for a 30-minute conversation. Abergel opened the alternative library in Copenhagen in 2000, and has since brought the idea to 70 countries. Human books vary from people who are blind and deaf, bipolar, homeless and, in the case of a Rochester, New York, event, a white woman who grew up in apartheid-era South Africa. That woman, 41-year-old Deb Duguid-May shared her experiences, saying, What I became so aware of was how fear was used to control people and how fear was used to bond people. Everything I had been taught by my culture was a lie. In 1993, [Abergel] and a few friends started a successful youth group called Stop the Violence after a mutual friend was stabbed. Thankfully the friend survived, but the incident inspired Abergel to help people start open conversations about their differences. When Stop the Violence was asked to develop an activity for a festival in 2000, the group came up with the idea for The Human Library. Abergel hopes to bring his novel concept to all 50 states soon, telling Today: I figured that if we could make people sit down with a group attached to a certain stigma they dont like or even know about for that matter, we could diminish violence.
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