The Human Library comes to Bengaluru to engage readers on discrimination, identity

Call it a library with books that talk, tell their own stories and answer your questions.

The Human Library series, a concept that was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2000, will hit a new destination this month — Bengaluru.

The unusual project coaxes people to “not judge a book by its cover” and instead initiate conversations.

The discussions, which have journeyed through New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai, will have the same format in the Bengaluru edition as well.

People will register for it stating why they are interested in ‘being a book’.

Those who pass the filters will get to set what their own title will be, and themselves become the human book.

At the event, “readers” - people who are interested to listen to these “books,” will browse through the ‘titles’, pick one and start ‘reading’ them through a conversation.

The minimum age for participants, both as the human books and readers, is 18. The event itself will last about half a day, said Roshni Ross, an organiser at the Bengaluru event, adding that the response to the call for “books” had been good.

“Those who are interested in reading can pick their book and converse with it sitting across for 20 to 30 minutes,” she said.

Though general feedback will be collected, the “end-result” would be to “break the bridge between what is known and what it really is,” she said. The event is about discrimination and identities. Samples of titles that the parent Human Library offers include “Unemployed,” “Autism Spectrum Disorders,” “Convert,” “Homeless,” “Soldier (PTSD),” “Sexually abused” and “Refugee.”

With each city having its own discrimination priorities, the titles range from gender normative and transgenders to dabbawala in Mumbai. The latter “book” narrated a first-person account of the financial struggles of the famed dabbawalas. The stories narrated give readers a new perspective and broaden their horizons.

The event is usually annual in each city, Ms. Ross said, adding that more cities may have an opportunity to experience the Human Library.

How it all began

It was during the Roskilde Festival in Denmark that the Human Library (Menneskebiblioteket in Danish) made its debut as an eight-hours-a-day — four-day event featuring over 50 titles. According to the parent Human Library, the then festival director Leif Skov approached the initiators of non-governmental youth movement ‘Stop The Violence’ to develop activities for the festival focussing on “anti-violence, encourage dialogue and build positive relations among the visitors”.

The movement itself was started by four youngsters — Dany Abergel, Asma Mouna, Christoffer Erichsen and Ronni Abergel —from Copenhagen after a brutal attack on their friend at night in 1993.