"Unjudge Someone"
A short film about The Human Library Organization by Eclectic Spacewalk Productions.
Last fall (2019), we traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark to speak to Ronni Abergel, Founder & CEO of the Human Library Organization (HLO), and also to document one of their events during Copenhagen’s Culture Night on October 11th, 2019.
“Menneskebiblioteket” as it is called in Danish, was created in Copenhagen in the spring of 2000 by Ronni and a few others. HLO has grown significantly since their humble beginnings and now operate events in over 80 countries.
“The Human Library® is a global innovative & hands-on learning platform helping create more inclusive and cohesive communities across cultural, religious, social and ethnic differences.” HLO meets their goals by, “creating a special dialogue room, where taboo topics can be discussed openly and without condemnation. A place where people who would otherwise never talk find room for conversation…a place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered.”
“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, represent 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.”
Dialogue can be fruitful when a safe framework is the central tenet for these quite personal conversations. The conversations help to challenge prejudice, aim to help rid of discrimination, prevent conflicts, and contribute to greater human cohesion when both parties come to the dialogue genuinely wanting to learn from one another. All of the human books are volunteers with personal experience with their topic.
“Un-judge Someone!” is upgraded from “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”
The improved statement honestly presupposes our biological judgements (based on evolution & survival techniques) of others, but - critically - allows us to consciously rise above them. Companies can also utilize these unique experience stories to create a more progressive cooperate cultural that is more humanistic in nature.
“The Human Library offers diversity, equity and inclusion training for companies that wish to better incorporate social understanding within their workforce, as well as grow their cultural awareness for deeper partnerships with clients.”
Human Library Organization website: https://humanlibrary.org/
Eclectic Spacewalk Productions: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
Eclectic Spacewalk LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/eclecticspacewalk