“In Conversation with Christian Cooper: Observing the Observer”

Join the Connecticut Audubon Society and other organizations for a free special event featuring author, birder, and naturalist Christian Cooper.

Date: Thursday, April 4, 2024  
Time: 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.  
Location: Yale University’s Sterling Sheffield Strathcona Hall 
1 Prospect Street, New Haven 
Free and Open to the Public. Registration is required.

Click HERE for FREE tickets to see Christian Cooper in conversation!

This engaging conversation, moderated by Connecticut Audubon Board member Robert Lamothe, will feature Christian Cooper discussing his lifelong passion for birding, the beauty of the natural world, and the experiences chronicled in his new memoir, Better Living Through Birding—Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World. 

Cooper made the news in May 2020 because of a tense encounter with a woman and her unleashed dog while he was birding in Central Park. The woman said she felt threatened and called the police. Cooper recorded a video of the encounter, which took place on the day George Floyd was killed in Minnesota.  
 
The video, which Cooper posted on social media, went viral and helped inspire #BlackBirdersWeek as a reaction from other Black birders who faced harassment and suspicion while looking for birds.  
 
Cooper, who is vice president of the New York City Audubon Society, went on to film the Extraordinary Birder series for National Geographic Wild, and to write his memoir.

The program will begin with introductory remarks from Dr. Dorceta Taylor, an environmental justice leader and professor. 

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Parking is available on-street or in Yale Lot 51 on Temple Street.

This event is sponsored by the Connecticut Audubon Society, the Yale School of the Environment, the Franke Program in Science and the Humanities, the New Alliance Foundation, Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, the City of New Haven Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism, the New Haven Bird Club, and the Mobley Family Fund for Environmental Humanities at Yale. 

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Christian Cooper’s story!  

Click HERE for FREE tickets to see Christian Cooper in conversation!