Baba Shango, founder and director of Sehah Youth and Fitness describes the origins and evolutions of this 10 year old community hub where youth come to learn about their roots and grow stronger in their futures. This...
With real insight, wit, and detail, Vivian Vincent describes the businesses and activities around the Palms Shopping Center during its heyday as well as the close knit community around it.
Raj Mankad, the editor of Cite and OffCite, takes us on a tour of the triangle-shaped area bounded by Highway 59, Hillcroft, and the Westpark tollway. First he braves the feeder road, pointing out a school next to a...
This Hear Our Houston audio tour mixtape is a glimpse into the minds of 7th and 8th grade writers who attended Writers in the Schools Summer Creative Camp this year. Breaking the form of the usual Hear Our Houston tours,...
The tour by The Alphas traces the historic Volwang colony in the area surrounding Skydive , including Star Pizza, the original Voltwang landing ground, mating facilities, and karaoke prison. Brother B explains Voltwang...
Amblings and ramblings about the roots of my Houston Tango experience.
This walking tour reveals some of the many edible wild plants one can find during the summer in Houston.
Not so much a tour to make things more legible, but a remnant of a walk, an audio piece standing in for the lack of a tour. As a manner of introduction to this cut-up recording, please read this open letter from...
Writers Kelly Moore and Addie Tsai take a walk from an apartment to the labyrinth at St. Thomas, with a stop at the reflecting pool by the Rothko Chapel. Their dialog compares and remembers their experiences walking together....
Keith Reynolds leads a loop tour orbiting our majestic diety the Ford sign, and commenting on such topics as antique Blockbuster, sock shopping, education, state v. national pride, bargain hot dogs, strip mall Police stations,...
There are worlds accessible—whether by trap door or rabbit hole—only to the young. These recordings by Lanier Middle School students remind us of this. You can bet the Houston you’ll find here is one...
Bert Samples and Carrie Schneider take a New Year's Eve walk from Project Row Houses, where they hear music played by an "enchanted traveler," past former Barber Shops and Beauty Salons full of memories, to the TSU Campus...
Weaving memory, story, geography, and meditation together, Indre records a stroll along Peden, Waugh, Nevada, Commonwealth, Indiana, and Dunlavy streets ending at the Pralaya Yoga Studio. Photography by Rose Kuo.
Visual Artist Stephanie Toppin echoes Bob Stein, the dean of the School of Social Sciences of Rice University: “Hillcroft is disorganized but not necessarily unorganized development. It is what Houston is all about. When...
In this Hear Our Houston audio tour and contribution to Unexpected City , Daniel Anguilu, a prolific street artist responsible for some of Houston’s most compelling murals, and Alex Luster , documentary filmmaker of...
Entymologist, avid dancer and banjo player Lara Appleby leads a 10-minute one-way walk along North Boulevard. In her doctoral studies at the University of Houston, Appleby studies ants. In her stroll through Boulevard Oaks,...
Houston's First Fighting Preacher the Reverend Ray Martin Welcomes you to the Progressive Amateur Boxing Association (PABA)! Founded in 1968 as a non-profit community based athletic/recreational, counselling, educational...
Artist Regina Agu takes us along for her daily wonder-filled walk in the First Ward. As a resident at Elder Street Lofts, she excavates the spiritual from this old graveyard and mental hospital site, appreciates...
Koomah interviews Cristan Williams, president of the Transgender Foundation of America, for an in depth, informational and historic tour of the stories beneath the artifacts at the TG Center Archive . The Houston TG...
All along 19th Street documentary filmmaker Heather Korb acquaints us with some of the Heights’ charm. This one way, looped route is as packed as 19th Street itself with recommendations, introductions to the locals,...
Musician Pete Gordon takes us on a looped walk around Midtown where he has owned and operated The Continental Club for ten years. 3700 Main used to be a general store in the 1920s and is now a thriving music venue and bar...
In this Hear Our Houston audio tour and contribution to Unexpected City , writers Diana and Steven Wolfe stroll from their first Houston residence, a house in the Heights at 920 Ridge where they lived together thirteen...
Artist Ayanna Jolivet McCloud takes a walk through the Third Ward where she grew up taking art classes and now runs her own experimental art space, labotanica , at 2316 Elgin, just beneath the historic El Dorado...
Artist, musicologist, and historian Tierney L. Malone walks along Almeda from Southmore to Wheeler, in Houston’s historic Third Ward that has served as a major hub for some of Houston’s most talented artists...
Japhet Creek is a mile long natural creek that runs into Buffalo Bayou. It's one of the last natural springs north of the bayou. Since 2004, the Japhet Creek Nature Conservnacy has been working with various...
The Art Guys decided to take a walk on the “edge of town” in an area where we have never been. We looked at the map and chose to go east towards the edge of the city near the ship channel. We settled on...
This is an insider's view of the recently conserved and re-opened Museum inside the World Famous Orange Show. I'm a board member of the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art which preserves and manages the Orange...
The GENDER Book Walk explores the historical mile of the creation of the GENDER book starting in Menil Park, a favorite meeting location for the creators, traveling past the University of St. Thomas to the corner of...
My tour is a small sampling of public art at UH.On the bounds of of Third Ward, on the north side of campus near the Arts Corridor is a grouping of work by artists, Mary Miss,Frank Stella, Alyson Shotz, Matt Mullican, Tom...
Visual artist Raul Gonzalez takes a loop walk around the Rice Military area starting at Darke Gallery and walking through the Rice Military area where he used to deliver food. He appreciates the nice area, but also remembers...
Brother Kenyha greets the skies and the morning on a rainy day in Houston, recalling how the flip of a coin brought him from Brooklyn to Third Ward, the Harlem, the hub, the mecca, and the cultural capital of Texas. He lists...
This year the MWE campus was rebuilt and in January the students and teachers moved back into the new space. In honor of the new school the third grade students collected objects and memories to place in a time capsule....
Starting from my childhood house I travel a couple blocks to the elementary school that was the cornerstone of my art career and survival skills.
Y. E. Torres and her mother, Irene Shafer take you on a walking tour from Torres' grandmother's house, where they were both raised, to Memo Record Shop.
Barbara Hinton came across this great new word the other day: Wonderistism: The belief that to continuously look for and find awe in one's surroundings is what makes the experience of life truly fantastical. This short...
This walk is from Thomas's tree on Portland Street to the Texas Medical Center, but the experiences are common for caregivers on any 20 minute respite walk you might be able to find.
Wortham Fountain on Allen Parkway east to the new walking/iking bridges near Montrose/Studemont, then back to the Waugh Drive overpass . . . and the bat cave.
There are worlds accessible—whether by trap door or rabbit hole—only to the young. These recordings by Lanier Middle School students remind us of this. You can bet the Houston you’ll find here—one where...
Mr. Res and I lead our after-school creative writing group around Project Row Houses, a nonprofit organization celebrating African American history and culture in Houston's Third Ward. We discuss PRH's wonderful community,...
Ms. Bry and I lead our after school creative writing group around Project Row Houses, a nonprofit organization celebrating African American history and culture in Houston's Third Ward. We discuss PRH's wonderful community,...
Yu-Ru Huang guides us through the Taiwanese Community Center . As she describes its history, purpose, and place in the neighborhood we listen in to a celebration of the semester with student songs, a greeting by the principal...
Artist Phillip Pyle II walks along the Columbia Tap Rail Trail. With humor he comments on what used to be there, what is there, and what he wishes wasn't there.
To the sounds of a Saturday morning, Susan Barry leads a tour of her neighborhood. Cherryhurst is an historic, active, civically engaged tight knit community. She debunks several myths about Houston and points out this area's...
(tour description, feel free to edit) Priscilla Graham, Community Executive Director of the Houston Texans YMCA, leads us on a tour through the facility and history of this Houston Texans YMCA. Dedicated to Quentin R....
Bam takes us through Bam's history from Mama Bam, to Something Serious Air Freshener, to the Screwed Up Click, block parties, awards, Bam's Kids, Hurricane Ike, and being a community hub for all sorts of folks. Bam reflects on...
Pastor Paul Jiminez takes us on a loop around James Bute Park, or as he calls it, Homeless Park. He describes the rhythm of the area, especially The Journey from the Star of Hope shelter to the park. He also details the...
From his former sleeping places to the bunkhouse where he now lives, Boatwright walks around the Bread of Life campus and talks about his experiences being homeless and how he came to have a home now.
Tafari leads a tour around Marcus Garvey Liberation Garden.
