By AMEARA DITSCHE
Staff Writer
On Saturday March 16, Saint Rose held their first Human Library Event. Kate Moss, the outreach Librarian at St. Rose has been trying to cooridinate this event for some time now.
“It’s been two years of me trying to do this, I can’t believe it’s finally happening! I could not have done this without all the help from the student volunteers” said Moss.
Moss specifically spoke on behald of a specific volunteer, Aliyah Poinsette. Poinsette is a senior here at Saint Rose who is considering a career as a librarian. Due to these goals Poinsette reached out to Moss to volunteer at the library, during her volunteer work she became heavily involved in assisting Moss with the organization of this event.
“I find it really interesting to be able to gain that new perspective, to maybe talk to someone who you see on campus but know nothing about, to gain a new outlook on life.” says Poinsette when asked why she found this event important.
Fellow Facilitator Essence Coxum also spoke about her perception of the event and saying it seemed like a really good idea, attributing her decision to be a facilitator as just wanting to help the event succeed in anyway possible.
The way a Human Library works is you have people volunteer to be “books.” The books tell their stories to “readers.” The point of the event is to foster a stronger sense of community. A reader checks out a book for 30 minutes. The first 15 minutes are reserved for the book to tell their story and the last 15 are for questions and discussion. At St. Rose, there was around 15 books, sitting on the first floor of the library. The chairs were rearranged so readers could sit across from the book and have a more personal discussion away from other participants. The event was made festive with T-shirts and snacks courtesy of SA.
The books consisted of faculty members, alumni, and current students. A wide variety of personal stories were shared. Topics like sexuality, religion, and domestic violence were all covered, as well as many more.
One book, St. Rose freshmen Cole Norberg shared his story about coming out as transgender, and the adversity that came along with it. “My story interests people, a lot of them have questions, and I don’t mind answering them.” answered Norberg when asked why they chose to share their story at the event.
Norberg also shared why he thought the event is important. “People are raised with a bias, this is a chance to peak outside that bubble,”.
The event also was attended by several readers, both from St. Rose and outside visitors alike.
“I think it’s really great. There is about 15 people here sharing stories so anyone can come in and learn about a number of experiences.” said Tyler Nimz, a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology who came in support of his girlfriend who was a book. Nimz read several of the different books the event offered.
Another reader, St. Rose student Roy Harper cited his favorite part of the event as the discussion portion during the second half of a reader’s time with a book. “It gets very very deep.” said Harper. He heard about the even via a post on instagram.
Moss hopes to do this event again in the future. Again, she has been trying to organize it for two years and finally accomplished it due to the help of student volunteers. She is optimistic that coverage of the vent this year will get the ball rolling for more people to be interested in coming years.
