This makes me feel Afraid Connected Empathetic Empowered Uncomfortable at an Individual but Shared scale
The Human Library
Encouraging people to “unjudge” a book by its cover
The Human Library creates a unique setting where the participants are invited to challenged their preconceived notions of social, ethnic, or cultural minorities and “check out” the “human books” for a brief period of time to talk to them. The participants are in a room full of people with single hand descriptors such as “unemployed”, “hijab wear-er”, or “transgender” and are open to a conversation that shares their experience and perspective as a member of their communities. The unstructured nature of the library allows for each person to ask questions that directly address their preconceived notions and creates an intimate individual experience that will carry over to the greater experience of creating empathy for the larger group of people based on the individual’s experience.
Contributer notes
What is surprising, refreshing, most interesting?
The format and directness of the piece is particularly interesting and effective. The experience of viewing the person through a singular description loaded with preconceived notions and creating an unstructured way to further expand upon the identity is a refreshing way to deal with the deficit of empathy and representation for marginalized communities.
Key Insights? What can we learn from this?
We can learn that creating an open space for conversation can create a transformative experience that can change an individuals perspective on an entire group of people.