Jane’s Walks: Promoting Civic Engagement and Community Connection
Taking place on the first weekend of May, Jane’s Walk is an annual festival of free, community-led tours and walking conversations. It promotes civic engagement and encourages people to share stories about their community and use walking as a means to connect with neighbors.
Jane Jacobs. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
The Jane’s Walk festival is inspired by Jane Jacobs (1916-2006), a writer and urbanist who advocated for a community-based approach to city building. Her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, explores how cities function and evolve – and has become a pivotal work for architects, city planners, and policymakers. Jacobs lived in New York City and Toronto, where she helped the cities move from a car-centered to community-centered approach to urban planning.
Following Jane Jacobs’ death, her friends and colleagues founded Jane’s Walk as a way to honor her life’s work and activism. Within a decade, the festival grew from a few walks in the Toronto area to more than 1,700 events annually in 225 cities across the world. Currently, more than 37 countries host Jane’s Walks.
In Atlanta, the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) organizes the city’s Jane’s Walk Festival Weekend. On May 2, 3, and 4, guests can explore in-person and virtual events. This year, some of the Atlanta Jane's Walks include topics such as:
- Learning from complex cities
- Historic LGBTQ+ Midtown Atlanta
- West End Writers
- Downtown Atlanta’s Cultural Canvas
- Tour of Auburn Avenue
- Graffiti as Krog Street Tunnel’s and Cabbagetown’s Ecosystem
- Vanished Summerhill
- Splat Stroll through the Westside Trail
- Historic and Contemporary Decatur
- How Two Jewish Dentists Got the Braves to Move to Atlanta
- Literary Quests on the Atlanta Beltline
- Hidden Green Spaces Along Memorial Drive
While Jane’s Walk differs across the continents, the events all embrace six guiding principles. Every tour is volunteer-driven, inspired by the world around us, is conducted in a way that makes sense for the tour guide and community, creates space for all voices, encourages engagement with Jane Jacobs’ ideas and legacy, and recognizes that cities are living ecosystems with a past, present, and future.
Jane’s is 100% donor-funded, and all events are free. Organizers work to create fun and safe environments where people feel inspired to share and learn about their community. To learn more about Jane’s Walks, visit janeswalk.org.