This Sunday there will be a free drop in event at the Scottish Storytelling Centre as part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival. Living Library is organised by Laura Pasternak who is a regional ambassador with the Holocaust Education Trust.

This is a library in the normal sense but the ‘books’ to be borrowed are people and reading is a conversation. Each book is someone who has experienced discrimination and prejudice in society.

There are first and second generation survivors of the Holocaust and the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, survivors of sexual violence, travellers, care experienced people, LGBT people, people with disabilities, refugees and feminists.

The idea is to promote meaningful conversations leading to tolerance and respect.

Laura Pasternak, Regional Ambassador for Scotland with the Holocaust Educational Trust and organiser of the Living Library, said: “The Living Library is a wonderful opportunity to create a safe space for culturally diverse storytelling to dispel myths and encourage understanding of people or groups of people that regularly face discrimination and prejudice. It’s also an unmissable opportunity, in my view, to speak with Holocaust survivors which soon will no longer be possible.”

“With hate crimes in Scotland on the rise, and the recent anti-Semitic shooting on Yom Kippur in Halle, there’s never been a more urgent time to spark change and champion equality and human rights. Visitors to the Living Library will have the chance to speak with people they perhaps wouldn’t ordinarily encounter in their daily lives. My hope is that visitors will be open-minded, ask the Books questions ,and that their encounters will empower them not to stand-by in the face of hatred and discrimination.” 

The Living Library will take place as part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival on Sunday 20 October from 11am – 5pm at the Scottish Storytelling Centre at 43-45 High Street.

There are more details of the free event here.

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.