Anthony Bourdain and the Culture of Living Outside Ourselves

Anthony Bourdain’s death last week in France has caused me to be reflective about the idea of living outside ourselves. While Anthony’s death raises many questions about suicide and suicide prevention in our culture, I want to think about Anthony’s gift of living outside of himself and the impact that this type of life makes.

Many people were impressed by Bourdain’s irreverent wit, and his storytelling skills, not to mention his culinary chops. I too certainly appreciated these aspects of Anthony’s personality.  However, what impressed me most about him was his ability to move beyond his, and his audience’s comfort zone to fully engage with people from different countries and cultures so that there was real insight. His was certainly not an engagement of the Michelin star restaurant chefs but rather with the authentic and everyday people and their cultural traditions and foods.

During his time in restaurant kitchens of New York, Bourdain consistently spoke up for the largely Mexican and Central American workforce. Not only did he support better treatment and recognition for the work they did, he also consistently suggested that as an American culture we should pay more attention to the Mexican and Central American cuisine and a growing group of Hispanic chefs that were making a name for themselves.

I use Bourdain as an example of getting outside of our own skin, culture, and comfort, and fully embracing the other as valuable. This attitude helps break through the xenophobia of many Americans, and also recognizes the dangerous hegemony of white American Christianity as the defining characteristic of America. The US Declaration states “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. If this is truly to be a defining characteristic of this country, then it must change our attitude, in a positive way, towards those that are unlike us.

Many of us have been fortunate to work at institutions with faculty, staff, and students from a wide variety of ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic backgrounds. As librarians, we often think of ourselves on the forefront of thinking about and interacting with different culture and languages. We work diligently on trying to build an inclusive workplace culture and to embrace and celebrate the diversity of our campuses. We build collections to support diversity, and as much as possible represent a global perspective.

For me personally, the challenge is to make all of our students feel fully appreciated as an integral part of the campus community. This is a difficult challenge as many students feel marginalized by the dominant culture and that they must, in public, play a role that is not authentic.

What does it mean to “live outside ourselves” with respect to our students? While there is an expectation of campus participation by administrators, it is easy to do the expected; attend lectures, musical performances, and basketball and football games. This type of participation is important and does show support for the people who organized these events, but they are not always the events or activities that are the most important to students, or ones that force us to live outside ourselves and immerse ourselves into the “other”.

Every campus has a large number of clubs that provide students options for social, cultural, educational, and spiritual interaction. These clubs may be as formal and long-standing as fraternities and sororities, or less formal, such as clubs based on nation of origin, which will vary annually by the number of students from that country on campus. Many of these clubs serve as “identity spaces” that provide an opportunity for students to truly be themselves, and not necessarily conform to the dominant culture. These clubs play a critical role around race, gender/identity ‘expression, religion, nationality, religion, and culture. While these clubs are rightly student focused and student-run, I think there is an opportunity for the library and its staff to step outside and build community with students where they feel most at home.

If the library is going to be an intellectual and cultural hub on campus then students across all cultures, languages, religions, and identities should feel comfortable in the library – the library could become one of their “identity spaces”. While I certainly don’t have all the answers on how to make this happen, I do have some suggestions that I think will make a difference. If this is to make a difference on campus, then there is a role for staff across the libraries from the Dean to the circulation clerk.

A few suggestions:

•  Establish a multi-faith prayer/reflection space in the library.
•  Invite student groups in for coffee and cookies or other culturally appropriate treats. Resist the temptation of making this about the library and how the students in the group use it. This is about understanding this group of students, their life at the university, hopes, dreams, and struggles.
•  Most universities have student club fairs that showcase the clubs to other students.  Walk around the fair and introduce yourself and ask about their club and the work they do. Student groups are excited and proud of their clubs and they appreciate it when members of the non-student campus community are genuinely interested in them.
•  Watch the student newspaper and ads in the student union for events where a student club really want members of the campus community to show up. Take some time out of your evening to participate, even if it is only 30 minutes.
•  If the library has space for exhibits or artwork, invite student groups to exhibit.
• Libraries like to build good relationships with student government associations, and the Dean often gets to make a presentation to Student Government. Taking this as example, ask major clubs to the library to talk to Library Leadership about their club and the work they do.
• Talk to students every chance you get, even if it is as brief as a "hello, how is your day going?" Students appreciate the genuine interest of staff, faculty, and administrators.

If we are truly thinking about “living outside ourselves” as a model of engaging our student community, then this needs to be an ongoing conversation. As we understand our students and build community, opportunities will present themselves to engage with them around library services. Make it first about them, and you will find that you personally, as well as the library, will enriched by the engagement.