HOUSTON – Houston is not known as a pedestrian-friendly city, but one local woman is working to change that.
This fall, artist Carrie Schneider will launch Hear Our Houston, a free online library of audio walking tours narrated by Houstonians, for Houstonians.
These tours, however, come with a twist. Hear Our Houston takes listeners off the beaten path to explore many of Houston’s overlooked treasures and hidden gems. Says Schneider, “These tours celebrate the journey. They are not a list of easily consumable hot spots. You hear the city from [the narrator’s] perspective. You discover meaning in the details you never noticed.”
To that end, Hear Our Houston tours are voiced by local people offering their own unique perspectives. For instance, there is the “Street Art Tour” led by local artist Daniel Anguilu. Another tour is narrated by a newly settled refugee and another by a woman in a wheelchair. The “We Are All Weird Birds Tour” is voiced by local tango instructor Indre Rapalaviciute.
Schneider has been working nonstop since March to grow Hear Our Houston’s library of tours, striving to represent a wide range of perspectives and locales.
“We are currently working with Writers in the Schools, Diverseworks, Rice Design Alliance, OffCite, and the whole Houston community to generate amazing content,” says Schneider.
More than anything, Schneider wants to give each Houstonian the opportunity to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. “I think this way of being in our city is very human and encourages community,“ says Schneider. “You share headspace with the maker of the walk [and] hear the city from their perspective.”
Hear our Houston officially launches in September, and audio tours will be free and available for download at . Until then, a handful of tours are available for preview at offcite.org/category/unexpected-city . To submit a tour idea to Carrie Schneider, send an e-mail to: info@hearourhouston.com.
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