Inspiring life stories shared at new Living Library
Real-life stories of hope and humanity were shared to help launch a living library service at the University of Bradford.
The Living Library launch event gave staff and students from the University of Bradford, known as Living Books, the chance to share their personal experiences with others.
The launch event’s theme, ‘What Bradford means to me? Stories of histories, hope and humanity’, saw people, described as readers, have the choice between listening to eight ‘Living Book’ titles, of their fellow University students and staff members.
These book titles included ‘An Accidental Social Worker’, ‘A Long Way to the University of Bradford’ and ‘Too Clever by Half’.
The eight Living Books held a 15-minute conversation with their ‘readers’ to discuss different perspectives and experiences from their life, which aimed to develop understanding of other people’s journeys. After hearing their chosen book’s story, the readers were given the chance to ask them questions.
The new service was launched at the University’s JB Priestley Library on Wednesday 21 February. Organisers are looking to hold further Living Library events in the future.
Kirsty Carver, Head of Library Services at the University of Bradford, said: “It has gone really well. It is an opportunity to challenge your own opinions, perspectives and assumptions.
“The Living Library has been a collaboration with a unique group of staff across the whole of the University.
It has brought together many people all interested with the whole idea of sharing stories
Dr Karen D Thornton, Programme Leader for BA Film and Television Production at the University of Bradford, who was part of the organising group for the event, said: “The project was a brilliant opportunity for people to take some time out and find out about other people’s stories and ask questions and have that interaction.”
The Living Library concept started from a Danish Human Library idea in 2000 where instead of borrowing a book to read a story, you ‘borrow’ a person instead. This helps people ask questions of someone’s life and experience and understand any issues better. The idea is that stereotypes can be challenged when hearing stories from real people. Since 2000, similar events have taken place in more than 80 countries.
Here are the stories of two of the Living Books who told their stories at the University of Bradford’s Living Library launch event:
Case Study 1: Nico Kalkusinski
Nico Kalkusinski, pictured above, says he took a leap of independence when he left his family and friends behind in his native Poland to move to Bradford to study after a chance meeting.
Two years before he was due to finish his studies in 2017, Nico visited a careers fair and when the time came to move to university, he bought a plane ticket and moved to the University of Bradford to study for a BSc (Hons) Computer Science degree.
But the first year of his university course in Bradford was affected by the pandemic as he could only stay in his accommodation, take part in online studying, and only left each day to either go to the gym or to work at a fast food restaurant, due to the restrictions that were in place at that time.
He says during this period he was also struggling financially and, at one point, only had £1.43 to his name. But things improved dramatically for him during his second year of studies as he made new friends when the pandemic’s restrictions were lifted, and everything was re-opened. He also took part in a student exchange programme in the USA.
He said: “Bradford was a leap of independence for me. I came here really to discover myself.
When I came here I was a blank sheet of paper. I could write a new story
“It was fun telling my story. I came here to try to motivate people, that it’s not that scary to do something like I did. I want to try to inspire people to take that gamble.”
Nico, whose book title at the Living Library launch was ‘Taking my first flight from the nest to Independence’, will graduate this summer and hopes to stay in the UK.
Case Study 2: Rifat Bashir
Rifat Bashir, pictured above, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Co-ordinator, Centre for Inclusion & Diversity (CfID) at the University of Bradford, divided her story into three chapters for the Living Library launch – her South Asian heritage, partition to the UK and her childhood, married with three children and studying for a degree, and her hijab story.
Rifat, who had the Living Book title of ‘Ow do…Meet the Hijabi Yorkshire Lass’, revealed her parents moved from a village in Pakistan to England before she was born, and she went to 11 different schools during her childhood as her family regularly moved around the north of England for her father’s work.
She talked of starting to study for a Business and Computing degree at Bradford College aged 31 after she had had her three children.
Rifat also revealed that she has not always worn her hijab. She did not wear it when she was younger, but first started wearing it when she was studying for her degree, adding that she loves wearing her hijab and being recognised as a Muslim.
She said: “It was really nice to get that opportunity to share my story with people. You don’t often get that chance to talk to people, because we don’t have that time, as we are so busy doing our day-to-day job.”