The Living Library

Living Library is meant to provide a safe environment for sharing and discussion. You can think of it as an actual library where people go, borrow books for a limited time and read them. Only here the books are people and the action of reading the book means having a conversation with "it". In our case, the books were some of us, the participants of the second meeting for the INFUSION project in Cieszyn, and the readers were the visitors of the Tea festival that was happening at the same time. The topics of the books can vary and their subfocus is to challenge stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice.  

The Living Library attempts to challenge prejudice by facilitating a conversation between two people: Books and Readers. Books are volunteers who have either been subjected to discrimination themselves or represent groups or individuals within society that are at risk of suffering from stereotype, stigma, prejudice or discrimination. Living Books often have personal experiences of discrimination or social exclusion that they are willing to share with Readers. Most importantly,

Books give Readers permission to enter into dialogue with them, in the hope that their perspectives and experiences will challenge commonly held perceptions and  stereotypes and therefore affect the attitudes and behaviours of wider society.

For more information visit:
http://humanlibrary.org