Bookworm, Issue 11
The Book: Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper
Anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, and that’s nearly all of us, will find moments of relatability in Christian Cooper’s memoir Better Living Through Birding. Cooper, who is gay and a self-proclaimed Blerd (Black nerd), chronicles his life from childhood in the 1970s into middle age, when he unexpectedly becomes a household name after he records a viral video that captures a racist incident.
The encounter happens while Cooper is birding in New York City’s Central Park. He asks a white woman to follow park rules and leash her dog in a sensitive habitat area. She refuses and eventually calls the police to accuse Cooper of threatening her life. It happened on Memorial Day, 2020, the same day in which a white police officer murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
While Cooper’s memoir is not about these particular incidents, it’s a stark and sad reminder of how many Black lives are lost at the hands of police officers. For readers who are Black or LGBTQ+, the book acknowledges their reality and affirms their dignity in the face of continued oppression in America. And for everyone else, it’s a reminder to examine our own personal biases in the pursuit of equality.
A lack of inclusion is an ongoing problem in the wine industry. Only 1% of wineries in the United States are black-owned or have a black winemaker, and our paired wine comes from one of them. Bodkin Wines is a California winery founded by self-taught winemaker Chris Christensen in 2011. Since that time, he’s been pushing boundaries with his highly-acclaimed wines and with his efforts to promote diversity.
Hand-crafted wines tell the stories of their makers, just as memoirs do. As you sip and read, take notice of all that these two Black American men have to say.
Whether recalling his childhood in Long Island, his Harvard education, his activism and career in New York City, or his travels around the world, two things remain constant in author Christian Cooper’s life: his passion for birds and his love for comic book, science fiction and fantasy stories. It’s where he takes refuge from intolerance, and specifically in birding, he finds “a window into the wondrous” that will shape his entire life.
Cooper’s memoir succeeds because his writing is honest and direct. He’s engaging, humorous and unapologetically himself. While the themes of racism and marginalization loom large in his life story, he’s balanced the book with practical birding tips and entertaining anecdotes.
Remembering a frantic sprint from his midtown office upon hearing news of a Kirtland’s Warbler sighting, he writes, the rare songbird is “a creature even more unlikely to be spotted in Central Park than the gay Black nerd with binoculars looking up at it.” Upon arrival at the park, he fears he might have missed the bird, but offers up this tip: “The fastest way to find a widely reported rarity is to look not for the bird but for the coagulation of birders already looking at it.”
Unlike the Star Trek Vulcan characters whom he admires for their emotional control and adherence to logic, Cooper’s strongest stories come when he’s vulnerable. He opens up about living through the AIDS crisis; pushing boundaries at Marvel Comics with LGBTQ+ characters; and repairing an imperfect relationship with his father. He shares anger, loneliness, and injustice, but also triumph, tenderness, and self-acceptance.
At a time when divisiveness and intolerance prevail in America, memoirs like this one are more important than ever. Clearly, Cooper considers his life to be “better” because of birds; so much better, in fact, that he’d like everyone to pick up binoculars to experience it for themselves. “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,” he writes.
But perhaps the title words “better living” can be interpreted another way? What would our world look like if we all behaved “better” toward one another and toward the planet? Cooper’s memoir is a call to change our own behavior in pursuit of “better living” for ourselves, our fellow human beings – and for the birds.
The Wine: Bodkin, The Victor’s Spoils, Sauvignon Blanc, Sonoma County, 2021 $16.99
This wine is pale lemon with medium (+) intensity on the nose. It has youthful aromas of lemongrass, green bell pepper, white peach, green apple, pineapple, pink grapefruit, orange peel, honeysuckle and wet stones.
On the palate, it’s a dry wine with medium (+) acidity and medium alcohol at 13.1% AVB. It’s medium-bodied with medium (+) intensity and a medium finish. Flavors mirror the nose with abundant bright, fresh fruit and hints of floral and herbaceous characters.
While this wine is easy-drinking and refreshing, there’s an underlying complexity in the wide array of aromas and flavors and in the fuller mouthfeel. It’s delicious (and an incredible value)!
Winemaker Chris Christensen incorporated three different vessel types (concrete egg, stainless steel and neutral oak barrels), plus five different yeasts strains, into the fermentation process. Before bottling, the wine was aged on its lees for six months. The grapes were sustainably farmed.
Christensen is known for crafting America’s first sparkling Sauvignon Blanc. It was out of stock at my local liquor store, but it’s worth tracking down once the next vintage is released, or it can be ordered at Bodkin’s website.
Why the pairing works:
The intention behind this pairing is to celebrate Black storytelling – as well as the joy of a rare bird sighting or an excellent glass of wine.
With their successes in mostly-white spaces, both Christian Cooper and Chris Christensen have broken down barriers for upcoming generations of BIPOC writers and winemakers. The two men have a few additional things in common. They are both children of educators who grew up in households that valued academics. While Cooper graduated from Harvard, Christensen (who is from Iowa) chose another prestigious university, Stanford.
Christensen has a passion for Medieval history and Shakespeare. His company, Bodkin, takes its name from a narrow, pointed arrow used by English archers against the French in the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Shakespeare’s play Henry V tells the English king’s story right before, during and after this battle. A famous quote in the play, “We few, we happy few,” is Bodkin’s motto.
Earlier this week, I attended a “Diversity in Wine” class taught by Peter Plaehn, the wine manager at Surdyk’s in Minneapolis. In addition to Bodkin’s Sauvignon Blanc, we tasted six more wines, learned about the winemakers behind them and discussed some of the barriers facing BIPOC wine entrepreneurs, including access to financing, land ownership and/or sourcing grapes, finding distribution networks and the insular winemaking industry.
Ultimately, hand-crafted wines are agricultural products made by people. Knowing these people’s stories can enhance our drinking experience. Let’s seek out and support diverse voices, in winemaking and in book publishing, so that we all have an opportunity to listen to and learn from them. That’s certainly “better living,” to me.
Additional BIPOC winemakers and wines from the Surdyk’s “Diversity in Wine” class:
André Hueston Mack, Maison Noir ‘Knock on Wood’ Chardonnay, Willamette Valley, OR
Rajat Parr & Sashi Moorman, Evening Land Vineyards Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, OR
Teresa Heredia, Gary Farrell Winery Pinot Noir, Sonoma County, CA
Tara Gomez & Mireia Taribó, Camins 2 Dreams Red Blend, Santa Barbara County, CA
André Hueston Mack, Maison Noir ‘Horseshoes & Handgrenades’ Red Blend, OR and WA states
Brown Estate Winery, Zinfandel, Napa Valley, CA