Radical Walking Tour of Grand Rapids document for those who are unable to join us Saturday in person

From the introduction to a Radical Walking Tour of Grand Rapids:

In his insightful book, Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong. radical historian James Loewen takes us on an enlightening tour of the US and examines historical markers in big cities and small towns to see what lens history is presented in.

Grand Rapids also has many historical markers, especially in the downtown area, most of which have been sanctioned by Grand Rapids City officials or by other entities that are reflective of those who run this city. 

An example of numerous historical markers, are the series of statues that have been created over the past two decades, known as the Grand Rapids Community Legends Project. The Community Legends Project was the brainchild Peter Secchia, former US Ambassador to Italy, former CEO of Universal Forrest Products and a member of what I identify as the Grand Rapids Power Structure. 

Most of the statues are of people who have historically been part of the local power structure, although there are a few exceptions. What I want to do in this book, is to provide a counter-narrative to what those in power have sanctioned. 

The locations that I have chosen follow more of a people’s history of Grand Rapids, whether we are talking about individuals, social movements or historical events that have taken place in the downtown area of Grand Rapids, or at least near downtown Grand Rapids.

I chose this book title, A Radical Walking Tour of Grand Rapids, in part because it could be part of an actual walking tour, indeed even performance art, that deconstructs the dominant narratives about Grand Rapids and allows us to collectively imagine how we might think about Grand Rapids if the stories of social movements and acts of resistance were how we talk about this community. 

However, this book will also be an online tour that people can traverse virtually, whether you live in the area or not. There are a total of 34 locations on this radical tour, with a mix of historical markers and historical events. A Radical Walking Tour of Grand Rapids, is also a companion book to my book, A People’s History of Grand Rapids.

My hope is that this book will not only get you to think differently about Grand Rapids, but that it might inspire other radical walking tours throughout the city, where we can share more history from below, instead of the kind of history we are told to believe. 

We recognize that spending several hours on a Saturday afternoon participating in a Radical Walking Tour of Grand Rapids, might not be the most appealing thing to do. We do believe that it is important that people become more familiar with the Radical History of Grand Rapids, since it is a fairly rich history that is often suppressed.

We plan to livestream the Radical Walking Tour, post photos, create a YouTube channel of videos for each of the stops along the tour, possibly create an app that people can access and do the tour on their own, plus it might even become another book.

In the meantime, we have put together a PDF of the Radical Walking Tour of Grand Rapids, which you can access at this link. Besides the text/scripts we will be using on Saturday, there are numerous images of either the location of each stop or other graphics that reflect what was happening on the date(s) when these actions happened.

We hope you find this useful and we plan to add many more for a final version of the Radical Walking Tour of Grand Rapids. We are also grateful for everyone who has provided some creative energy, their time, resources and passion for helping to make the Radical Walking Tour of Grand Rapids a reality.

Love & Rage!