Performance artist Laura Milkins and writer Anne Greenawalt are both hitting the road to collect stories.

Laura’s project, Walking Home Stories, is a 2000 mile trek from her home in Tucson, Arizona to her mother’s house in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She’s leaving on May 1. She says, “I plan to walk the entire distance, inviting people to walk with me and share a story as I make my way across the country. Each night I will stay in someone’s home and cook dinner and breakfast for them, in exchange for their hospitality.” You can follow her on her Facebook page Walking Home.

Anne and her mother are traveling across the country in The Daughter Project. She says, “I want to discover the stories of mother-daughter duos across the nation as well as explore my relationship with my own mother. My mom and I will traverse the nation via Amtrak to meet with other mother-daughter duos and conduct in-depth interviews with these women.” Anne and her mom will be in Tucson on May 19-20.

You can contact the artists through their websites if you would like to be involved in their projects.  Following are their impressive bios:

Laura Milkins co-organized a cross-cultural art festival called Arizona Between Nosotros: artists from Mexico respond in video and performance. In 2009 she completed a Fulbright scholarship for her performance Walking Stories: Mexico. She received her MFA at the University of Arizona in 2008, a Post Baccalaureate Certification in 1996 and a Diploma in 2000 from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1993 with Bachelors of Arts in Fine Art. Since 1993, she has shown her work in Boston, Portland, ME, Grand Rapids, MI, Tucson, Phoenix, Oaxaca, Mexico and Mexico City. Prior to settling in Arizona, Laura traveled to Europe, Asia, and South America, documenting the experience through email with text and drawings. Laura has worked in a variety of mediums from traditional painting and drawing to sculpted mattresses and online performance art. Her current work seeks to create community and engagement by involving the viewer in the art making process.

Anne Greenawalt is a writer specializing in literary fiction and nonfiction with an emphasis on feminism and women’s sports and cultures.  Her collection of short stories called Growing Up Girl won runner-up in a national competition that resulted in its publication.  The Daughter Project is one of her current writing endeavors.

Ah, summer in Tucson, a good time to not be in Tucson. Except, of course, if you want a good deal in a restaurant or want to cruise the streets without traffic jams of students and snowbirds.

So my partner and I hit the road in the Happy Camper off to cooler climes and visited some friends in colorful Colorado. Some of the people we visited I’ve known for 40ish years so we have lots of history. And lots of stories.

We shared stories about the wonderful or sad fates of mutual friends. We could amuse ourselves all day with stories about how naive we were in the good old days. We gained insight from stories that uncovered the truth about something we didn’t really understand at the time. Sharing history with someone is really sharing our stories.

Stories on the road of course include the stories you overhear in a truck stop or at the ranger’s office from complete strangers. They are glimpses into other people’s lives that you will never see again but give you information about the human condition. Like the proud wife who told us that her 70-something year old husband had climbed all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000 foot peaks.  Sharing a story with someone is creating a history with them, even if it’s only a few minutes, it’s a tie with each other that can last a lifetime – in our imaginations.