MEET THE FOUNDERS

Please meet Nicole and Ellen - the original curators of Human Library Fort Wayne.

Nicole and Ellen met in the spring of 2017 while each was exploring ways to better serve their community as activists. In the beginning they were aware of their similarities - two women with a passion for serving Fort Wayne - but it was their differences that they promised not to ignore. They knew that if they were going to truly create honest, compassionate spaces for others in their community to share stories and to challenge perceptions, then they had to first create and work from a foundation built upon truth and compassion. Many earnest conversations have occurred between them, some revealing the bits and pieces of their life paths to now, some wide-open confessions of the wounds faced from systemic oppression, and some letting go of societal norms prescribing how two women - one white and one black - lead and follow.  

They consider their intentional partnership laden with honest, compassionate conversation to be a Human Library case study.