We are proud to announce the introduction of a new Human Library book depot for New York City. Over the past months members of many different communities have come together and joined forces to help us create safe spaces, where we can learn about our diversity.

Based in Brooklyn

New York now joins a list of cities across the US to host a local Human Library Book Depot. San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Muncie, Fort Wayne are others. It is not an easy task to build a book collection from scratch and to establish a strong group of librarians that can help publish our books to readers.

Technically the new book collection is based in Brooklyn and spearheaded by among other librarian and book depot manager Leslie Lucas Gallager.

“New York City is such a big place, but it’s really a patchwork of neighborhoods and personal networks. It has been a wonderful challenge for me and for our librarians to tap into those networks and find our friends (and friends of friends) who not only have a challenging aspect of their lives but are also willing to talk about it”.

Human Library founder Ronni Abergel is excited about the potential for impact in the city.

“New York and especially Brooklyn is one of the most diverse places on earth. So it is wonderful for us to finally be able to help build understanding across the many communities living here. With the resources now in place, we will be more available to local libraries, schools, colleges, universities, festivals and work places”.

Partnerships that are crucial to the sustainability of the book depot.

Publishing virtually at first

Due to the pandemic the first meeting with readers will be online and its planned for January 24th. A selection of the new book collection will be published using the Zoom platform.

Among the titles expected to be available you can find books on: “Unseen Disability”, “Homeschooler”, “Mother of a Transgender Daughter”, “Intersectional Blackness”, “Refugee”, “Mother of a son with Down’s Syndrome”, “Transracial Adoptee”, “PTSD”, “Non-binary”, “Lesbian”, “Lonely”, “Buddhist”, and “Formerly Incarcerated”. 

Rising demand online

The demand for the Human Library’s online events is rising sharply and more than 60 sessions are already planned for 2021. The January 24th event is free to readers and you need to be able to set aside two hours to become our reader.

You can find more information about the opportunity to participate in the launch of the new book depot for New York City by following the link below.

https://fb.me/e/13glTh8i0

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The Covid-19 crisis has proven a tremendous challenge for very many including the Human Library. We have stopped all activities across the world and spent time adapting to a new reality. Where sitting in groups close together and having couragous conversations about diversity is no longer feasible.

However it is important that the conversations continue and that is why we are now offering the Human Library online at both public and private events.

Unjudgement Day online

At the end of June we celebrate 20 years of human libraries around the world with Unjudgement Day. Our initial plans of hosting events across many continents was foiled and instead we are offering public events with reading opportunities online. Follow our SoMe channels to stay updated on our Unjudgement Day offerings.

Masco first to host online readings

Libraries and universities were not the only Human Library partners having to postpone events. Our corporate diversity partners were also impacted and many are still not able to resume their inclusion and diversity work. However MASCO Corporation have invited us to deliver a series of events online. Staff from across different business units will become the first corporate readers of the Human Library online.

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