![\"HumanLibrary\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/HumanLibrary.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
How does one combat prejudice and stereotypes more effectively? Venturing into a library and reading about different cultures is one route\u2014but of course, reading comes with its own rocky ground; who was writing about the culture and how, along with the reader\u2019s own interpretations, can cause even more confusion, and damage toward the cause of increased empathy.<\/p>\n
But what if instead of a book, you could check out another human?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the philosophy behind the Human Library, an event set to take place at the Main Branch of the Long Beach Library on May 31.<\/p>\n
First created in Copenhagen in 2000 by Stop the Violence, a crew of five youth activists disturbed by the stabbing of a friend, the phenomenon has slowly grown because of its simplicity: sit down and talk to people whose shoes you may never be in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard about Human Libraries a couple years ago, and since then have been hoping for another Human Library event in the area,\u201d said organizer Rachel Rifkin. \u201cAfter awhile, I got tired of waiting and decided to ask some local organizations if they would be interested in coming together to create one in Long Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those organizations\u2014the Long Beach Public Library, Long Beach Free School, the Long Beach Time Exchange, and Eayikes\u2014have now gathered a retired cop, a transgender person, an advocate for public breastfeeding, and a formerly incarcerated woman who has used her own experience to help other released women transition back into civic life.<\/p>\n
Long Beach locals are encouraged to nominate additional Human Books; ultimately, the event will have a total of 15 available for a 15- to 20-minute check-out. Nominations will be taken until the end of April.<\/p>\n
If you know of someone who would make a good Human Book, email lbtimeexchange@gmail.com<\/a> or lifestories2day@gmail.com<\/a> with a nomination.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A group of Long Beach organizations, focused on combating prejudice, have formed a “Human Library” where books are replaced with living storytellers. Visitors are encouraged to check them out, hear their stories, and understand the world a bit better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":68711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1473,1474],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-libraries","tag-main-library","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3458"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=3458"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}