“It’s easy to read a book. That’s why the Human Library is so important: These are people, these are emotions, these are real-life stories,” said Ken Mejia-Beal, Naper Pride spokesperson.
On Saturday, April 20, the 95th Street Library became the location of the Human Library. This innovative idea from Denmark gives guests the opportunity to “check out” a person, with the goal of meeting others from different backgrounds and experiences through a 30-minute conversation. Over the course of three hours, more than nine different “books” were available, and over 50 readers came through.
“So typically, people that you might look at on the street and wonder about or maybe have questions about, like, people that are disabled, people that maybe are transgender, or maybe people that are gay, said Karen Luster, The Adult, and Teen Services Supervisor at the Nichols Library. And so this gives people the opportunity to sit down and have a one on one conversation and have a better understanding and hopefully go back to their own lives and realize that we’re really not that different.”
The Human Library
Ken Mejia-Beal is part of Naper Pride, which, along with the Naperville Public Library and the City of Naperville, helped bring the Human Library to Naperville. He says it’s easy to read a book, but to hear from someone in person is a very different experience; one that can open minds.
“That’s why the Human Library is so important because these are people. So I am here to talk about my experience with mental health and eating disorders, in particular male eating disorders. Bulimia, to be more exact, is something that is on the rise in men, and it’s something we don’t talk about often. So that’s why I’m here. “
“The human library really is an opportunity for books, which I’m a book today to tell our story. And I think it’s so important that if you have a story that has the potential to have an impact on other people and affect other folks, I think it’s a great thing when there’s an opportunity to tell that story because you just never know, who, who you may touch,” said Benny White, Councilman, City of Naperville
White noted that Naperville is a diverse city, and the Human Library lets folks dig a little deeper with someone from a different culture. Currently, the city’s demographics include a 37% minority population.
Making an impact in Naperville
For Leslie Ruffing, Vice President of the Naperville Park District Board, the human library gave her a chance to learn from others’ experiences and break down stereotypes.
“ I was a reader. The book I checked out was a person from the Muslim Community with post-9/11 experience. And, you know, I will have to say every book available to check out was wonderful, and I wish I could check them all out. I just was really interested in this particular book to hear from her experiences and just really to learn and to dialog with, with someone different than me, Being able to speak with someone whose experiences are so different than your own at the moment, to be able to ask those questions and hear their responses and see, you know, in their eyes, live through their experiences as you listen to them, I think is just so, impactful.”
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