The Human Library at Folio: Connection Through Living Stories

Pike Place Market is home to a hidden treasure. At the main Pike Street entrance, take a left at Rachel the Pig, weave through the throng of flying fish watchers, and climb the Atrium Suites staircase. At the top, above all the bustle, there is a book-lined oasis of serenity and calm: Folio: the Seattle Athenaeum. When I arrived, my first question was, “What is an athenaeum?” It was explained to me that before we had public libraries, Ben Franklin pushed the idea of creating spaces where books, periodicals, and ideas could be shared; this was the spark that created some of our country’s earliest libraries, known as athenaeums—Latin for “temples to Athena.”

I attended a free event there called The Human Library. The Human Library is an international non-profit organization based in Copenhagen that works to bring more inclusivity into our diverse world. Their bi-line reads: “unjudge someone.” Here’s their mission statement:

The Human Library is, in the true sense of the word, a library of people. We host events where readers can borrow human beings serving as open books and have conversations they would not normally have access to. Every human book from our bookshelf 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.

[The Human Library website]

I had no idea what to expect...it sounded intriguing...a human being as a book? What does that mean exactly? How does one read another human being? My wife, Rachel, and I arrived with many questions that were cheerfully answered by Tess, one of the Folio librarians. We would “check out” a “book” for a 30-minute “reading” session. Of course, the book was a person! We would basically sit down with our open “book” and have a conversation. We were then offered a “library card” with the titles available to check out, as seen in the featured image of this post.

Rachel and I checked out Bipolar, Boy Soldier, Muslim, and Pacifist Army Spouse. What followed was a three-hour reading session with four different people that was informative, impactful, moving, funny, unbelievable, honest, and...absolutely riveting. How did we read these totally open and incredibly candid strangers? We sat in a cozy corner of the library and simply talked. We asked questions—they answered them. They shared stories of their experiences—we listened. They asked us questions—we connected.

The experience was, simply put, incredible. I learned so much about what it means to be bipolar and to what degree mental illness is still stigmatized in our country. I listened to the harrowing tale of a ten-year-old boy being forcefully conscripted and marched, in bare feet, across the desert from Southern Sudan to Ethiopia to be trained as a child-soldier. I was amazed at the resilience and strength of a Muslim woman who, as a small child, immigrated with her family from Bangladesh to Memphis, Tennessee. (My big takeaway from this particular book was that listening to the experiences of growing up as a person of color—and an immigrant—in this country should be required “reading” for everyone who grew up white in the US.) Finally, we closed out our visit with a lively and surprising read from the spouse of an Army officer who is a politically active pacifist. What an eye-opening conversation! We learned about some of the inner-workings within the Armed Services, specifically the pressures put upon wives to conform with military protocols and be compliant to the needs of their husband’s careers. (I thought the 1950’s were over. Not by a long shot.)

Upon leaving Folio, I was reminded of a chapter in Moby Dick, when Ishmael contemplates the tattoos that cover the body of his Polynesian friend, Queequeg. He wonders if the tattoos might be hieroglyphics that hint to the mysteries of the human within—he speaks of Queequeg as a book to be read.

The Human Library

The truth is that we are all books to be read. We all have our stories. How often do we literally sit down and read another person? Especially a person whose experiences are so very different from our own? How often do we connect with the stranger sitting next to us? When you think about it, we are a country of strangers. The bedrock of a democracy should be that we trust our fellow strangers to be decent, honest, co-existing citizens. Currently, our country seems so far away from a collective idea of trust that I often wonder how we can ever recover. I think that checking out a book from the Human Library and allowing oneself to examine one’s own innate biases, connect with a fellow human being, and empathize with them, would be a great first step.

If you would like to attend the Human Library, Folio is hoping to offer another free event in the future...but they need the public’s help to make that happen.

To learn more about Folio, become a member, and/or donate go to: https://www.folioseattle.org/

For more about the Human Library, go to: https://humanlibrary.org/