Janis FontaineOn Nov. 18, sit down with a stranger. Open your mind.
You’ve heard the saying, “I’m an open book.” It means you have permission to ask questions.
At the Human Library on Nov. 18 in West Palm Beach, guests are invited to check out humans to learn more about a group or culture.
From 5:30-8:30 pm at its office at 107 S. Olive Ave., the Downtown Development Authority will host about a dozen people who have volunteered to share their stories at a city-sponsored event designed to encourage conversations.
The Human Library provides a safe space for volunteers to share their experiences and insights on difficult subjects.
Sabrina Webb, the DDA’s communications coordinator, organized this month’s Human Library. The first one was in 2024.
“Back then we only had a few ‘books,’ just to see how it would go, and it was very well received. So we brought it back,” she said.
She said the goal “is to have people get their perspectives challenged a little bit. You’re meeting people who have faced discrimination by mainstream society for their life experiences. These people are willing to share their stories so other people can learn from them, just like you would learn from a book.”
Here’s how it works. A person volunteers to be a book.
Each is given a title that summarizes their story, Webb said.
The participants and their titles include:
- “I look like a warrior.”
- “My life as a police officer.”
- “Saved by motherhood.”
Most volunteers answered a call for participants, Webb said, including a Muslim woman, a person in recovery, and someone who experienced racial discrimination.
“They’re regular everyday people,” Webb said. “We want to challenge people to look beyond stereotypes and challenge their own assumptions and get to know the person behind the title.”
The project is offered in partnership with the West Palm Beach Arts & Entertainment District and the Human Library Organisation, which launched the not-for-profit learning platform in Copenhagen, Denmark, recruiting the first volunteers around 2000.
Organizers identified 12 pillars of prejudice, including ethnicity, mental health, disabilities, social status, occupation and religion, and adopted the phrase “Unjudge someone.”
Today, Human Library events unfold in more than 80 countries on six continents. Anecdotal evidence and research both indicate the interactions promote understanding, which increases empathy and tolerance, and decreases prejudice.
A 2022 study by BMC Psychiatry focusing on how human libraries could inform what people know and believe about mental illnesses found that the meetings can “significantly reduce stigma and preferred social distance” surrounding the mentally ill.
Experts say interactions eliminate stereotypes by replacing them with empirical evidence gleaned from the conversation. Shared experiences illuminate common ground. Those positive individual feelings get generalized across the group.
The Human Library Organisation offers training before the event on its website, Webb said.
“If people start getting too personal, it gives tips on how to handle it. Luckily, we’ve never had anything crazy happen, but it’s always good to have that training just so they know what to do.”
The human book sits down with up to six or seven people, and they talk for about 30 minutes.
“People have really in-depth conversations,” Webb said. “I think it’s more important now than ever to break down those barriers and connect the community. We’re all a little different, but we’re also part of the same community.”
Registration is preferred, “but this is a relaxed ‘come-as-you-are’ event,” Webb said.
“At the end of the day, we all just want to feel understood and be accepted, and this event allows an opportunity for people to do that.”
But the Human Library is no panacea. In fact, it’s a riff on an old joke.
“How many Human Library books does it take to change a lightbulb?”
“Only one, but the lightbulb has to be willing to change.”
