The Human Library Project

The original Human Library started off as a social movement in Denmark in the year 2000 as a way of challenging societal stereotypes and social stigma. The Human Library is a successful social movement which carries the slogan "Unjudge someone" and aims to challenge the prejudices and discrimination we have of other people. It works on the concept of a library.

You understand that a library is somewhere where you can borrow a book, right? Well at a Human Library event you borrow another human being and get to know their story. You turn up to a meeting and are presented with a list of different labels - e.g. homeless, addict, cop, disabled, transgender, and you simply pick a label and get to know someone who fits the label. In this way you overcome your individual prejudices by getting to know the person.

But what if we do away with the labels altogether? See do you like to be labelled by other people? How about we ditch the labels and start with the story?

This is how we get to the Human Library Project being developed by Qultura Core. Just like the original Human Library you get to know a Human Book at what is known as a Human Library event. But what is different is that there are no labels, instead you get a name, a face, and a few facts taken from their story. You attend the event to get to know the Human Book, and using the exact same protocol you get to know not just the Human Book but other participants while allowing other people at the event to get to know you and your story.

Development of the loving space

The Human Library Project is still based on dream weaving practice and activity but rather takes you in the direction of development of loving kindness, empathy and increased social awareness. Primarily the Human Library Project is being developed to enable people to mitigate the often profound and traumatic effects of social isolation, loneliness, alienation, social stigma and social exclusion by equipping people affected with the insight and resources they need to move back into the community in their own way, at their own pace, and put them into a situation where they can start to develop their own social support network and find their own people.

The way the Human Library Project is being set up is so that Human Library events take place in different community spaces throughout London. We hope to start organizing Human Library events in 2024. More details about the Human Library Project can be found on the Qultura Core website.