Palmetto Police Department Det. Dave Burns, right, talk to Madison Moyer, Palmetto Library “Living Library” guest about Moyer’s engineering career.
CARL MARIO NUDI PHOTO

Living Library program allows people to

‘check out’ a person at the Palmetto Library

By CARL MARIO NUDI

If you have ever wondered what it was like to live during segregation in the South as an African-American, or how does your life change when you have cancer before you are 30, a new program at the Palmetto Library provides an opportunity for you to find out about experiences like these.
The Living Library program at the Palmetto Library, 923 Sixth St. W., started last month with former Manatee County educator and school board member Barbara Harvey sitting with four people who wanted to know more about her life, said Branch Supervisor Megan Robinson.
“We learned about it through the Sarasota Library’s ‘Check Out a Person’ program,”’ Robinson said. “They did a year pilot and now have expanded it to other branches.
“We hope to do the same,” she said.
The program is based on an international program started in Copenhagen in 2000 called “The Human Library” or “Menneskebiblioteket” in Danish.
“Instead of books, we lend people to have personal conversations about difficult subjects,” according to the Menneskebiblioteket website. “Each human book represents a group in society that is frequently exposed to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination because of their beliefs, lifestyles, religion, disability, social status, sexuality, employment or ethnic origin.”
The “Living Library” program at the Palmetto Library gives people a 20-minute private face-to-face conversation with various people from the community.
“We wanted to do it because the Palmetto community is very diverse,” said Robinson, who has been supervisor of the Palmetto branch for about a year. “We think it’s very important to get people to sit down and talk to each other.”
The next “Living Library” guest will be Ellenton resident, Tom Tryon, opinion editor at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, at 6 p.m. April 9.
To reserve a 20-minute time slot, call the library at 941-722-3333, or email Robinson at megan.robinson@mymanatee.org, or stop in at the library and sign up at the front desk. There are only five slots available.
The March “Living Library” participant was 28-year-old Bradenton resident Madison Moyer, who had a double mastectomy last year.
“I knew Megan,” said Moyer, who works for the City of St. Petersburg as a transportation planner. “We were in Toastmasters together.
“She heard my stories (about the cancer) and the progress I made and asked me to be part of the program,” she said.
“Last year I had a double mastectomy, and then got ill for three months from another medical procedure,” Moyer said. “It was a hard time, but things came out better.”
One of the “borrowers” of Moyer was Ellen Wile.
“I wanted to (sit and talk with Moyer) because I’m a cancer survivor as well,” said Wile after her conversation with Moyer. “It’s important for cancer survivors to talk to each other.”
She said it went very well.
“It’s so unfortunate when people (have cancer) so young, but medical science has taken care of both of us so well, and I’m grateful for that, said Wile, who moved to Manatee County from Massachusetts in 1985.
Palmetto Police Department Det. Dave Burns also sat and talked with Moyer.
“I learned about what she does as an engineer,” Burns said.
Moyer graduated from the University of Texas at Tyler in 2014 with a civil engineering degree, specializing in transportation engineering.
“I wanted to be an orthodontist all my life, but found that I pass out at the sight of blood,” she said with a smile.
Moyer said she decided to be an engineer when she went to Disney World and rode the Haunted House and someone mentioned that the talking busts in the graveyard scene of the ride were the Imagineers who designed the ride.
“I said I think this is where I should be,” she said. “So I can get my face on a ride.”
After graduating from college she did get a job at Disney.
Moyer then went to work for the Manatee County Public Works Department as a transportation systems compliance coordinator, before taking a the job in St. Petersburg.
Participating in the “Living Library” program was interesting for Moyer.
“I wasn’t nervous, because I like to talk,” she said. “They just asked me about my experiences.
“I just found a way to connect with them,” she said.
“Ellen (Wile) shared that people say that things happened for a reason and she would say, ‘no they don’t,”’ Moyer said.
Wile also was one of the participants who spoke with Harvey.
Harvey and Wile talked about Harvey’s work as a civil rights activist while teaching.
The retired teacher lived through segregation in the South and experienced integration in Manatee County schools.
She is a co-founder of Educational Consortium Consultants Inc., which provides after-school education programs for Palmetto children.
Manatee’s newest elementary school in Parrish was named after Harvey.
“I asked her when she realized she was different,” Wile said of her conversation with Harvey. “She asked if I meant when did she realize she was black.”
Harvey said when she started seeing signs with “colored” printed on them when she was out with her mother, and those were the only places they could go — then she knew things were different for her, said Wile, who was in public relations for about 15 years and was a paralegal for about 12.
“That left a strong impression on me, not having that experience myself,” she said. “The time spent with both (Harvey and Moyer) was splendid.”
Burns, the Palmetto Police detective, also spoke with Harvey last month,
“We discussed our views about society,” he said. “The program is a good idea.
“It gives people an opportunity to meet, and see what they’re all about,” Burns said.
For more information about the “Living Library” program at the Palmetto Library call 941-722-3333.
To learn more about the Danish “Human Library,” visit it’s website at www. menneskebiblioteket.dk. The website is in Danish and will have to be processed through a translation app.