One Grand Read takes flight with Black birder’s memoir

In May 2020, Christian Cooper, a dedicated birder, was on his home turf in New York’s Central Park looking for the elusive mourning warbler when he came across a “bird” he had never encountered. The woman was later given the name “Central Park Karen” after Cooper asked her to leash her dog in the Ramble, a natural zone where dogs are not allowed to run free, and she called the cops on him.

This situation could’ve gone poorly for Cooper, a Black man. However, like most birders when encountering a rare species, he was ready. He began filming the interaction on his cell phone and later posted it online, where it went viral.

The recording caused the woman to lose her job and her dog. Cooper, who felt that the woman had already paid enough for her actions, did not press charges.

Instead, he became a spokesman for inclusivity in the outdoors and authored a comic book based on the incident, appropriately titled “It’s a Bird,” following a Black birder who inherits binoculars with superpowers. National Geographic also asked Cooper to host a cable program, “Extraordinary Birder,” for which he traveled the continent covering birds and the natural world.

Cooper’s 2023 memoir, “Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World,” has been announced as the first selection of the newly established community reading program for Ingham County. Dubbed One Grand Read, the all-county program replaces East Lansing and Michigan State University’s joint One Book, One Community program, along with a few other community reading programs in the county.

Capital Area District Libraries executive director Jenny Marr said community reading programs are vital nationwide: “They help people feel part of something.”

“When we were looking for a title, One Grand Read became obvious. The Grand River ties us all together, and we hope to connect people to communities through literature,” she said.

The selection committee, which included representatives from MSU, CADL, the East Lansing Public Library, Hooked and Schuler Books, chose Cooper’s book based on its potential to “appeal to everyone,” Marr explained.

“We were looking for something ‘not discovered’ that would appeal to introverts and extroverts alike, and something people could read for enjoyment,” she said.

Cooper’s book covers a lot of bases: science, race and getting people outside. 

Cooper will make a free appearance Sept. 20 at the Kellogg Center to discuss the memoir and the importance of engaging with the natural world.

In an op-ed piece for The New York Times, published three years after the incident, Cooper wrote that “one of the things I love most about birding is how it shifts your perceptions, adding layers of meaning and brokering connections — between sounds and seasons, across far-flung places and between who we are as people and a wild world that both transcends and embraces us. In my life, it has been a window into the wondrous, and I feel excited and grateful to get to share that wonder with others.”

The mid-Michigan area is a hotbed for birding, according to longtime birder Ron Eggleston, with more young people becoming attracted to the hobby. He attributes the interest to online sites such as All About Birds and eBird, which help users identify birds by sound and sight. Some point to the 2011 movie “The Big Year,” starring Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and Anjelica Huston, which follows a trio of passionate birders who enter a contest to see who can find the most bird species in North America in a single year. It gets a little crazy.

“What makes birding special is that it’s free, and Ingham County has numerous parks and natural areas,” Marr said. “Hopefully, this book will get us to know our neighbors and get outside more.”

As Cooper writes in his memoir, “All we have to do is step outside, look and listen.”