Radical H-Town History, By Bike

I have no doubt that this won’t appeal to some, but I still think it looks pretty damn cool.

U of H’s Students for a Democratic Society is doing a Radical History Bike Tour this coming Sunday, April 4th, starting at the Cougar Den at UH University Center at 12:30PM, that’ll take riders on a tour of — believe it or not — local landmark’s in Houston’s radical history.

Didn’t think we had one? I’m not surprised — Houston’s always been known more for anything-goes business than it has for radical activism. But hey, if you think about it, we’re pretty much the most diverse of the Texas cities (and yes, that includes Austin, at least according to the 2006 census), we’ve got (okay, we had) Freedmen’s Town, we’ve got a large gay population, and we’ve even got Texas’s first openly gay mayor, these days. There’s a lot more of a radical undercurrent lurking beneath our melting pot of a city than a lot of folks may realize.

The bike tour will hit a lot of places and landmarks you’re not likely to have heard of (I know I haven’t heard of all of ’em, myself), like S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, the Moody Park Rebellion, Sedition Books, the Houston 12, People’s Party 2, and Casa Juan Diego, giving the rundown on the significance of each, and then it’ll end at Bohemeos in the East End around 4-5PM with an afterparty that’ll include poetry and music by Urbane Guerrilla Soundsystem.

Sounds like a very intriguing ride, even if you’re not necessarily a crunchy/hippie type… There’s no set fee; the organizers are just planning on asking for donations to help fund the SDS. (And yeah, I’m assuming you do have to provide your own bike, so start digging around now for the tire pump.)