Human Library: Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover

The Human Library: Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 1pm – 4pm
Noreen Reale Falcone Library- 1st Floor

The Human Library is designed to build a positive framework for conversations that can challenge stereotypes and prejudices through dialogue. The Human Library is a safe place where real people are on loan to “readers,” and where difficult questions are expected, appreciated, and answered. Human Books talk about what they have experienced, a challenge overcome, their struggles with stigma or stereotypes. By checking out a “book,” visiting “readers” engage in a 20-minute dialogue with a “book” of their choosing..

  1. A Night in Tunisia: When I tell people I grew up in Tunisia, they often ask me, if I knew the song “A night in Tunisia” by Dizzy Gillespie. Growing up in a multilingual and multi-cultural household shaped the scholar in me. Furthermore, moving from the city to the countryside as a child influenced my perspective of Tunisian culture. For us all not to forget, A Night in Tunisia is a book about growing up under dictatorship and the implications of politics on daily life and decision making.  Ultimately, my friends and I cultivated an underground intellectual life full of adventure and danger.  Life was so fun under the watching eye of the Dictator.
  2. Cultivating a Rose: What it’s like to raise a multicultural transgender child
  3. Open Book: Ask me Anything: I am here to share my knowledge of music and food  to show the ways in which my immigrant life has been enriched by the intermingling of different musical and culinary traditions.
  4. Diversity from Within: It’s all Relative(s)!  Discovering my diverse family heritage back to the 16th century through genealogy has taught me to understand both sides of a historic event without judging their choices. The historic events and conflicts over the centuries my ancestors suffered and has given me insight on how different generations decided to come to America, how rich I am to have a diverse background, and insight on the complexity of immigration today.
  5. Embracing the Imposter Within: My journey from a kid growing up in a public housing projects to become a college professor and the feelings of inferiority that have plagued that journey.
  6. I Take my Tea Seriously. Hear the Voice Behind the Hijab: My senior year of high school, I moved from a very large, diverse California school to a small, less diverse on in New York. The geographical shift was enough to knock me off my feet, especially as the way people treated me changed. In the California school system, I had people call me oppressed and a terrorist; even my 8th grade teacher called Arabs barbarians. Yet, most people I interacted with were interested in me as a whole person.Now, I often feel that is not the case. I have faced micro-aggression more than before and I never know how to respond. I often feel as if I am a box to be checked off on someone’s diversity list, or even worse, on someone’s “To Be Saved” list. At least two of my high school senior teachers told me they never spoke with a Muslim woman before. I am not the embodiment of the Muslim woman, but I am one who would like to share what makes me me.

This event is sponsored by the Noreen Reale Falcone Library and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. For more information, visit the Human Library guide.