At this type of library there are no late fees, and the selection isn’t arranged according to the Dewey Decimal System. That’s because all the stories here are delivered first-hand by a living, breathing human being.

The “Human Library” originated in Denmark in the year 2000 as part of a youth organization called “Stop the Violence.” The idea is straightforward: library guests can choose which volunteer they’d like to “check out” based on titles the human books assign themselves. Past titles have included “Olympic Athlete,” “Biking Agoraphobic,” “Fat Woman,” and “A Questioning Christian.” Visitors then sit down with their books for half an hour or so to listen to them share their personal stories.

The project is meant to combat prejudice by giving people a chance to connect with someone they may have never had a chance to speak with otherwise. No two accounts are exactly alike, and guests have the unique opportunity to ask questions and interact with the stories as they listen to them.

Another year, another Corso Zundert (previously), the legendary parade of giant floats adored with thousands of dahlia flowers that twist through the narrow streets of Zundert, Netherlands. This year 19 teams took inspiration from the work of Vincent van Gogh who was born in Zundert 162 years ago. The towering floats borrow colors, motifs, and imagery from van Gogh’s painting including several interpretations of the artist’s self-portraits.

Started in 1936, the parade celebrates the region’s reputation as a global supplier of dahlia flowers, an area now covering 33 hectares (81 acres) of 600,000 dahlia bulbs in fifty different species. The first Corso Zundert parades were modest in size featuring horse-drawn carts or bicycles covered in flowers, but the event has since grown dramatically. The floats now merge more ambitious aspects of contemporary/urban art with traditional parade floats as part of a friendly annual competition. You can see plenty more photos over on BN DeStem.

All of us will be met with tragedy as life goes on, but few things are as tragic as domestic violence. In her time, Brazilian tattoo artist Flavia Carvalho has seen the toll that this abuse takes on women. These people are often left with physical and emotional scars.

While the emotional scars might be trickier to heal, Carvalho decided that she could help with the physical ones. About a year ago, she started a project called A Pele da Flor, or "Skin of the Flower," which provides free tattoos to victims of domestic violence who want to cover their scars. The project also provides tattoos to women who have had mastectomies.

The artist's goal is to provide women with the chance to reclaim these scarred parts of their bodies. In a way, she helps them take their lives back.

"It all started about two years ago, when I worked with a client who wanted to cover a large scar on her abdomen," Carvalho told the Huffington Post. "When she turned down a man who approached her at a nightclub, he stabbed her with a switchblade. I was suddenly struck by the idea of providing free tattoos to women who were left with scars following domestic violence or mastectomies."

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“If I was him, I would divorce my wife, wink wink, give her all my money, and then I would go to a deposition, I’d light one of them three-hour cigars, I’d have me some wine, and maybe a Quaalude, and I would just go off, because I don’t believe he was raping,” Wayans said.

“I think he was in relationships with all of them, and then he’s like, ‘You know what, it’s 78, I can’t get it up for any of y’all, bye bitches,'” he continued. “And now they’re like, ‘Oh, really? Rape.’ Forty years — listen, how big is his penis that it gives you amnesia for 40 years?”

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“And some of them, really, is un-rape-able. I look at them and go, ‘No, he don’t want that. Get outta here!’” He later added, “Look, I understand fame. I’ve lived it. Women will throw themselves at you. They just want to be in your presence. There’s some that innocently will come up there, but not 40-something women. They’re not that naïve.”

Wayans later backtracked, saying if some of the some of teh women who claim they were sexually assaulted, “And for them, my heart goes out to them. For anybody who was raped by Bill Cosby, I’m sorry, and I hope you get justice,” however he wasn’t done attacking, once again calling women “bitches” and wondering why Cosby would rape a drugged woman, saying: “What’s the joy of banging someone that’s asleep?”

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“Traditionally in comics and really most stories, the protagonist is the one with the powers,” said Piperberg. “You see the world through the eyes of the character with all the abilities usually because they are immediately the most exciting and/or interesting person in the story.”

Dennis Liu, who writes Raising Dion, says that he drew upon his experience as an uncle to five nieces and spoke with actual single mothers about raising children alone to develop Nicole’s voice. Nicole, he explained, is equal parts Martha Kent and Alfred Pennyworth, the adults responsible for raising Superman and Batman.

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Raising Dion engages with the ideas surrounding superhumans, parenting, and race in a novel way by drawing heavily from the idea of The Talk that many parents of color feel necessary to have with their kids about race. Nicole’s insistence that Dion not use his powers in public speaks both explicitly to his being an actual superhuman, and implicitly to the way that the world sees him because of his race.

“I think a lot of people still don’t get that The Talk is a real thing that black families have to have,” said Piperberg. He admitted that initially the parallels weren’t all that clear to him either. “I think it’s really important to step out of my bubble of privilege to see what’s really going on. To discover and look at injustices that have been swept under the rug, or worse, accepted as the norm by society.”