Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper not only celebrates the popular pastime of birding but the author’s life. He writes about growing up as an ardent fan of Marvel Comics and the Star Wars franchise, and his self-described identity as a “Black gay activist birder.”
But Cooper, who will appear on Thu., June 15 as a guest of the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures New & Noted series, is cognizant that his book might not exist if not for an incident in New York’s Central Park. Three years ago, after Cooper asked a woman to leash her dog in the Ramble, a noted birding area, Amy Cooper (no relation) called the police to report she was being threatened by an African-American man.
“No one would be reading the book if not for the notoriety that came with the incident,” Cooper tells the Pittsburgh City Paper. “It’s not like the stories of my life weren’t there before, but in today’s world, you can’t cut through the clutter. There are tons of people with interesting stories, far better than mine. But they may not get the chance to tell them.”
Cooper is perhaps a bit too dismissive of his own remarkable tale, from wrestling with his sexual orientation in the 1970s to finding some measure of solace through comics, Star Wars, and, especially, birding. He writes that one of the best things about birding is how “it pulls you out of your inner monologue and forces you to observe a larger world.” Unable to let his parents know he was gay, Cooper says birding was more than a mere coping mechanism.
That coping mechanism grew into a passion that led to him being tapped by NatGeo to host his own show, Extraordinary Birder, through which he traveled the world observing puffins, peregrine falcons, and other species.
“It’s just nature, it takes you outside of all that stuff,” he says. “You could have been having the worst possible day, but you’re out in nature. Even if you don’t find many good birds, you’re just elevated, outside of yourself.”
Cooper, who was Marvel’s first openly gay writer and developed Star Trek’s first gay male character for Starfleet Academy, became a Stars Wars fan when the original movie was released in 1977. In Better Living Through Birding, he writes that “it’s no exaggeration to say that George Lucas saved my life.” He was only 14 at the time, confused, and at least once considered taking his own life.
“All those hormones are kicking in and I’ve got no place to go,” Cooper says. “If anybody finds out the truth about you, you’re doomed. And suddenly, here comes this escapist fantasy, just in time and seemingly tailor-made for me who was into mythology. There’s a lot of mythic resonance in how Star Wars was made [for someone] who had been steeped in science fiction his whole life, who was addicted to the old Flash Gordon serials when they ran on PBS. And suddenly, here’s this thing that, from the moment it opens, grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go.”
Cooper’s encounter with Amy Cooper – coincidentally, on the same day that George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minnesota – brought him the type of attention he had avoided throughout his life. When a video that he took went viral by way of his sister, Cooper became part of a cause celebre of which he wanted no part. When the district attorney’s office contacted Cooper to help prosecute Amy Cooper, he refused to cooperate, alienating some friends and family members.
“There was a lot of blowback for [refusing to testify], and I get it,” he says. “And part of me feels the same way." He adds that Amy Cooper has already felt the consequences of her actions after being fired from her job with the investment firm Franklin Templeton. "And if that isn’t deterrent enough, I don’t know if any legal proceeding will change that."
Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures presents Christian Cooper. 6 p.m. Thu., June 15. Carnegie Library Lecture Hall. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. $10. pittsburghlectures.org
Birder Christian Cooper is so much more than the viral video that made him famous
