Jane’s Walk MKE is back with 15 neighborhood walks in 2021

MILWAUKEE – Jane’s Walk MKE is returning May 15 to June 15 with in-person and virtual experiences that invite you to walk, talk, and explore together.  After a 2020 of pivoting, adjusting, masking, and virtual burnout, Jane’s Walk MKE says we all need to “take five,” get outside, and breathe.  It’s also the volunteer organization’s fifth anniversary, so “take five” is also a reflection of five years of community exploration and connection.

This year, there are more than 15 free, safely conducted, community-led tours and explorations to engage people in exploring their own neighborhoods and others around the city.  For those who would like to explore on their own or only with their “bubble,” video tours and mapped routes that you can enjoy at your leisure.

Jane’s Walk MKE is part of a worldwide movement of more than 200 cities hosting free, resident-led walking tours, inspired by urbanist, writer and activist Jane Jacobs. Milwaukee is unique in that it offers one of the largest efforts worldwide by expanding from one weekend to the whole month. Jacobs (1916-2006) championed the voices of everyday people in neighborhood planning and city-building. She is the subject of the critically acclaimed 2017 documentary Citizen Jane. and author of the classic Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Here is a sample of free community-led explorations – virtual, in-person, and DIY routes on Google Maps –  available to all. View the continuously growing list and register for in-person events at JanesWalkMKE.org.

In-person Walks

• Five Infamous Events from Milwaukee’s Past, May 15, 10am
• Meander: A Surrealist Exploration of City & Self, May 21, 7pm
• All is Flux(us): Brady Street Live!, May 23, 1pm
• From Drag Racing to Design District, May 26 at 5pm, June 5 at 10am
• Perspectives on Tragedy, May 31, 10am
• Meander: A Surrealist Exploration of City & Self (Part 2), June 4, 7pm
• Five Uniquely Milwaukee Destinations Accessible by Bublr, June 5, 10am
• From Transportation to Restoration: the Menomonee River Valley’s waterways, June 7, 5pm
• The Milwaukee River Greenway: our premier urban wilderness, June 12, 10am
• History Unhidden: Milwaukee’s LGBTQ heritage tour, June 12 and June 13, 12pm and 2pm

Video & Mapped Walks

• Brady Street
• Visual Vibes on Villard
• A Home for Heroes: Milwaukee’s Soldiers Home
• Neighborhood Tours of Havenwoods, Clarke Square, and Lindsay Heights

Jane’s Walk MKE is an all-volunteer effort made possible through an organizing committee and dozens of community partners and residents striving to engage and reimagine our city through observation, dialogue, education, and storytelling. Jane’s Walk MKE is a local program of Milwaukee Turners.

Jane’s Walk MKE’s mission is to organize free, resident-led neighborhood explorations and building community connections that embody urban activist Jane Jacobs’ legacy through observing and dialogue, education and storytelling, and collectively reimagining and changing the places in which Milwaukeeans live, work, and play. We believe in building a “walkable and talkable” city, planned for and by citizens. We envision a Milwaukee that has, to borrow from Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities, “the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, [it is] created by everybody.”

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.