Tomorrow afternoon, the Bainbridge Island Library will host a Living Library. About 15 local individuals from diverse and often misunderstood backgrounds – most of whom face common stereotypes because of their religion, profession, race, etc. – will allow themselves to be "checked out" by library visitors in 30-minute intervals for one-on-one conversations.
As P-I reporter John Iwasaki writes in this article, the Living Library is a movement that began in Denmark in 2000, and has since spread to communities across Europe and Australia. Bainbridge's event is only the second in the United States, following one in Santa Monica, Calif., earlier this month. The unique educational and social event sounds like an experience well worth the ferry ride (and the weather's expected to be beautiful for traveling on the Sound, to boot).
This project appeals to me in particular because of the reason I love journalism: I get to ask questions all the time that few people ever ask, whether it's because the questions are hard, or the people I'm speaking with have important-sounding titles. Hyper-awareness of politeness and general self-consciousness generally relegate us to discussing the topics we know well with the people who most resemble us; on the two ends of that spectrum, we often discuss difficult issues with people we know well, and issues that don't matter with people we might learn from. While communication and connection within our immediate circles is unquestionably valuable, there are endless missed opportunities to step outside that realm and learn about the realities of others.
The Living Library project focuses on opening up lines of communication with the people who are most often insulated in silence: the disabled, the stereotyped, those who live outside the norm whether by their own decision or due to factors beyond their control. And the fact that they're willing to sit in a library and be questioned by strangers says something about how difficult it must be to spend much of your life on the receiving end of silence, polite or otherwise.
The Living Library will be a chance to make new connections and to learn the answers to questions you may have never known you wanted to ask.
Many thanks to ECB for putting this story on my radar.
Photo credit: flickr/selva, Creative Commons license.
