Fancy borrowing a Bulgarian or loaning a lesbian? These are just some of the options on offer in Istanbul's Living Library. It’s not your typical library - here you borrow people instead of books and, the organisers hope, begin to confront some of your prejudices in the process.

by Dorian Jones

The idea of living libraries originated in Denmark and has spread across the globe over the last decade. The latest incarnation in Istanbul works in the same way as every other Living Library. Visitors browse a catalogue of "books" – which are actually people - and then sit down for a 30-minute chat with their selection. And, as Mere Israel, director of the library points out, there’s plenty of choice:

"We have different titles available, we have Greek, we have schizophrenic, bisexual, Arab, NGO worker, headscarf-wearing woman, HIV positive, lesbian, trans-sexual, Armenian, Kurdish and Alevi."

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Just one single Armenian
The library sets out its wares at various cultural events in Turkey, in the hope of encouraging visitors to challenge discrimination and stereotypical thinking. One willing reader is 21-year-old Anol Celcik, who chose to borrow an Armenian:

"We wanted to know about the other people, the people who have a  different lifestyle. I choose with my friend Armenian because it's kind of a big problem here. I just wanted to meet one single Armenian person because I have never met one before, because they are a very closed community. Although we have 60,000 here in Turkey we never see them. And we have no idea how they live, how they speak and feel about all these problems. So I came here to meet someone from Turkey with Armenian background."

Prejudices not cast in stone
The “books” are volunteers who come from all walks of life – and they too benefit from the idea. The Armenian book Celick selects is 22-year-old Bahsi, who’s been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who want to talk to her:

"This is a big surprise for me, that people coming and telling me that they want to understand me. Because usually people's ideas about us are formed by the media and education system which often misrepresent us and are prejudiced. But what is beautiful is that after a short while, our conversation evolves into a nice chat. When you talk to people, you can see that prejudices are not cast in stone, and after half an hour of conversation we come out having shared so many things, not only the issue of Armenians."

Celcik and Bahsi spend 20 minutes talking, and afterwards Celick says he’s discovered that she feels the same way about many things as he does – an example of the Living Library succeeding in its goal of breaking down prejudices. And with Turkish society deeply divided on a number of issues, including race and religion, the organisers are hoping the library will work the same magic on many more readers in the coming months.