Flint Hills Counterpoint Audio Tour Book: a multi-layered map of text, imagery, and sounds of Marion County, Kansas
Take a journey through the story of Marion County, Kansas with Flint Hills Counterpoint’s Audio Tour Book as your guide. Venture into the intersection of the tallgrass prairie and the Flint Hills while experiencing the memories, folklore, and natural history of the area. Travel to actual locations and landmarks of each story by following the book’s map coordinates (GPS). Throughout each chapter, QR codes will link this book to your smart device activating digital content that is a combination of narration, sounds, photography, original musical scores, short films, and animations. This book is structured geographically rather than chronologically- where multiple timelines converge at a single location.
Flint Hills Counterpoint Audio Tour Book is a countywide community project that collaboratively created an audio tour book that guides its readers and listeners through Marion County, Kansas. Through community engagement and programming, members of Marion County unearthed, discovered, and shared their stories and artifacts through multi-generational interviews at local historical archives including Peabody Historical Society and the Marion Historical Society- enriching the viewpoints and attitudes of Marion County, Kansas diverse historical, ecological, and cultural vitality locally, regionally, and nationally. Public programming included talks by Kansas Geological Survey, The Nature Conservatory, Center for the Great Plains Studies, Salina Land Institute, local historical societies, and oral histories and interview workshops.
Be a part of making and preserving the history of Marion County, Kansas.
Flint Hills Counterpoint is asking all current and previous members of Marion County, Kansas to submit their stories and artifacts to become part of a published Audio Tour Book. We are looking for stories about your memories, local folklore, histories, experiences, knowledge, and incidences that connect to the places, people, land, plants, and animals of Marion County, Kansas. We encourage you to submit an image and or description of an artifact that is part of your story. This may include an object, a structure, a family heirloom, a historical photograph, an article of clothing, a letter, a pressed flower, etc.
Book cover artwork by Shin-hee Chin, Indiangrass, 2017, 40” x 40”, Random weave and stitch, perle cotton thread, polyester thread, cotton, linen thread on a recycled blanket.
This project is sponsored by Humanities Kansas, the Kansas Creative Arts and Industries Commission, and the New York Foundation of the Arts’ AWAW EAG program, and the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission.