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Laura Milkins
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Walk With Me

Laura Milkins is Walking Home: 2000 miles from Tucson to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Originally from small town Michigan, she has lived in Tucson for the past six years.  Starting May 1st, 2011, she will be live-streaming 24 hours/day and asking people to walk with her and share a story as she makes her way across the country.  She will use social networking, both online and traditional, to safely cross the country.  Her work focuses on community and social interactions, and the role that technology plays in both.

WALKING HOME: stories from the desert to the Great Lakes

Laura Milkins is an internationally recognized, multimedia, interactive performance artist. Past projects include: “Walking Stories: Mexico City” (as a Fulbright scholar, she crossed all of Mexico City in the company of strangers and their stories) “In Bed” (viewers were invited to get in bed with the artist to do the things you do in bed that aren’t sleeping)  “Lights Camera Action” (together with a team experts in lighting, sound, movement, poetry, scenery, the audience produced a series of 4 minute music videos) and “Reclaiming Paris” (Laura transformed herself physically into Paris Hilton and then tried to reform Ms. Hilton’s image through acts of giving).

Walking Stories: Mexico http://www.walkingstoriesmexico.com
Reclaiming Paris http://www.myspace.com/lauramilkins
Perfect Woman Project http://www.perfectwomanproject.com

 

 

 

 

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Radio

Listen to an interview with Laura Milkins here (4:50): http://www.aengusanderson.com/radio/walkinghome.mp3
If you are from a public radio station you can license the interview through the Public Radio Exchange: http://www.prx.org/pieces/61606

Print Media

WALKING HOME: stories from the desert to the Great Lakes
May 1st – mid September
www.walkinghomestories.com

This May, Laura Milkins is walking home.
It is 2,000 miles from her house in Tucson, Arizona to her mother’s house in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She plans to walk the entire distance, inviting people to walk with her and share a story as she makes her way across the country. Each night she will stay in someone’s home and cook dinner and breakfast for them, in exchange for their hospitality.

The project will be broadcast live 24hrs/day on http://walkinghomestories.com where anyone can watch it live or view the edited version in the form of a weekly, online “TV show”: http://www.walkinghomestories.com/walking-tv. The basic set up is a webcam attached to a laptop computer, plugged into an external battery stored in a solar powered backpack. The webcam will be attached to a headband at eye level, so if Laura looks at the person walking next to her, you will be looking at that person. There will also be an interactive map, photos of the journey with her storytellers, and a nightly BLOG.

Laura’s artwork is about community and connections. She believes that safety comes from trust, community and collaboration. She will use social networking, both online and traditional, to safely cross the country.

In this project, Laura Milkins is offering to listen with an open heart. Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone’s story is important.

Please join her on this journey.

ARTIST BIO

Laura Milkins grew up in Michigan, but has lived in Tucson, Arizona for the past six years.  She is an internationally recognized multimedia, interactive performance artist. Her work focuses on community and social interactions, and the role that technology plays in both. In 2009, as a Fulbright Scholar, she crossed all of Mexico City in the company of strangers and their stories in a performance called “Walking Stories: Mexico”.  When the Swine Flu broke out during the first week, Laura continued with the project and documented as this city of 22 million citizens shut down. It seemed oddly appropriate that a major epidemic broke out just as she began a project focused on trust and intimacy with strangers. Because of this, she was interviewed by “The Story” on American Public Media as well as a number of news outlets in the U.S.

Laura received an MFA in Fine Arts at University of Arizona in 2008, a Post Baccalaureate at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in 2000 and a BA at Kalamazoo College in 1993. She has taught art classes at the University of Arizona, Kendall College of Art in Michigan and Brookline Arts Center in Boston.  She has performed internationally, participated in Pocha Nostra workshops and performances with Guillermo Gomez Pena, and been organizing art shows and festivals since 1993.

Walking Home Interveiws

KSN in Great Bend, KS
http://www.ksn.com/news/local/story/AZ-woman-leans-on-kindness-of-Kansans-on-walk-to/bfjwiC6niUO1KlUdtTwI0g.cspx
Arizona Illustrated on PBS
http://www.azpm.org/news/story/2011/4/26/1830-walking-home-from-the-desert-to-the-great-lakes/
The Topeka Capital Journal
http://cjonline.com/news/2011-07-31/woman-stops-topeka-during-2000-mile-walk-home#.Tj_L8nPrQ10
Tucson Weekly
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2011/07/25/qanda-with-laura-milkins-power-walker
Abilene Reflector Chronicle
http://abilene.uber.matchbin.net/view/full_story/14833646/article-A-good-walk-spoiled-?instance=main_article
Abilene Reflector Chronicle
http://www.abilene-rc.com/view/full_story/14788174/article-Going-to-Mother’s–2-000-miles-away?instance=homethirdleft
Salina Journal
http://www.saljournal.com/news/story/walking-7-21-11
Cibola Beacon
http://www.cibolabeacon.com/articles/2011/06/07/news/doc4ded70fabe136641076939.txt
Grand Rapids Press
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/04/laura_milkins_plans_to_walk_fr.html
PRX
http://www.prx.org/pieces/61606-walking-home-an-interview-with-laura-milkins
Tucson Citizen
http://tucsoncitizen.com/stories/

Past Interviews

APM’s “The Story” interview for Walking Stories: Mexicohttp://thestory.org/archive/the_story_763_Swine_Flu_and_Frankie_Manning.mp3/view
“La Jornada” interview for Polvo al Polvo: Recuerdos en el Desierto (co-organizer/performer): http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/08/06/index.php?section=espectaculos&article=a08n1esp
“The Boston Phoenix” interview for Perfect Woman Projecthttp://thephoenix.com/boston/Life/56213-Turn-and-face-the-strange/
“Grand Rapids Press” cover story for Walking Stories: Mexicohttp://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/04/courtesy_photo_firsthand_accou.html

Media Consultants

Carl Hanni

Carl Hanni is a writer, music publicist, disc jockey, DJ and local gadabout living in his adopted home of Tucson. He runs a one-man music publicity firm, Mod Media, and occasionally writes for Tucson Weekly, Signal To Noise and other publications. His column/blog “Sonic Reducer” runs in Blurt On-line.com. His show “The B-Side” runs on Tuesday nights on KXCI. He can occasionally be spotted playing records around Tucson.

http://www.modmediapublicity.com/

http://www.blurt-online.com/blogs/author/55/

 

A.T. Willett

Local Tucson photographer, photojournalist, uses beautiful light and color to create dramatic images of earth, wind, fire, water, and interesting people.

http://www.atwillett.com

 

Aengus Anderson

Anderson is an independent radio producer and photographer based in Tucson. His work lives at www.aengusanderson.com