More than a bar scene

I spent my Saturday afternoon hanging out with 15,000 people.

OK, so that's a bit misleading. What I mean is, this Saturday, I went to Durham's CenterFest Art Festival, which had approximately 15,000 attending that day. I listened to music, saw some great artwork and ate a delicious chicken-on-a-stick in a venue that made Duke's Oktoberfest party look like a poorly arranged homecoming parade. And through it all, I was laughing and joking with native Durhamites, enjoying the comfortable surroundings and the friendly atmosphere.

All of which, eventually, made me think back on the perennial Duke-Durham debate that has so often graced the backpages of The Chronicle, as well as informal talk amongst Duke students. You know the debate I mean: "Durham sucks" versus "Durham's not so bad," argued endlessly and without conclusion, like some second-rate Norwegian saga. In my experience, the average student takes on the former view, that Durham is a second-rate penumbra for our first-rate university.

But this constant debate over Durham's suitability for students says less about Durham's worth, and more about what we Dukies consider worthwhile. The truth is that Durham is far from the sleepy town we imagine it to be. If you don't believe me, pick up The Independent: This weekly publication, offered in the Bryan Center, lists pages of events going on every day in Durham and other parts of the Triangle. But students still refuse to venture beyond the bounds of campus, or past a few Duke-approved hotspots. And our rationalizations that we feel insecure in Durham, after we go to the nearest hall-crawl and drink sketchy homemade punch, seem a little thin. The reason we don't appreciate or interact with Durham has little to do with our concerns over security or our unfamiliarity with the area. These things can be solved by a Google search and a few common-sense rules like walking in groups.

The real issue is that we don't truly consider Durham to be our community. We consider Duke to be our community, and Durham as something we just have to tolerate. Reflect on this: This summer, we had a Durham DukeEngage project, where Duke students immersed themselves in projects benefiting Triangle residents in order to make a positive difference in Durham and augment their education through service in their community. This is a wonderful thing. But doesn't it embarrass you that we actually need a University-sanctioned program to encourage Duke students to work in Durham? In an ideal world, at an ideal Duke, this program wouldn't be called Durham DukeEngage; it would be called Regular Life!

It would be easier to write off the Duke-Durham debate as just another manifestation of town-gown rivalry, an inevitable friction that occurs for no good reason and has no lasting significance. But the truth is, our refusal to accept Durham as our community prolongs this unfortunate source of conflict between us and our neighbors. And it's the reason why, one mile out from campus, we find ourselves back in Tar Heel country, with Durhamites proudly wearing Carolina shirts while still in sight of the Duke Chapel. If we're unwilling to accept Durham as our town for the four years we live here, Durhamites are under no pressure to extend us the same courtesy and root for Duke athletics.

But don't engage yourself in Durham's community because you want Durham to be supportive of Duke. Do it because it will make your experience at Duke so much richer. Perhaps you didn't even know that there was an arts festival this week, with live music and thousands of people in attendance. Durham has a lot of other events, and it may surprise you how much our Bull City has hidden up her sleeve.

By the time the average student graduates from Duke, he or she will have lived in Durham for four years. Under any other circumstances, that would qualify anyone to consider him or herself part of the Durham community. And yet we refuse to see ourselves as Durhamites. We should accept that our time spent at Duke is also time spent living in the epicenter of Durham and the Triangle Area. So pick up an Independent, grab a friend and step off-campus for a while. Maybe you'll learn that Durham is more than just a weak bar scene. It's also a community. Our community.