Agriculture, Migration, and Soil Health
Walking + Talking: Stories in Motion is a socially engaged, collaborative project that interweaves storytelling into the rural landscape of Wisconsin. It links the stories of farmers, agricultural workers, and artists through their intimate connections to land, labor, migration, and memory.
Conceived by artist and former resident María Patricia Tinajero, the project grew out of the 2024 Farm/Art DTour and a developing relationship with Puentes/Bridges, a non-profit in Western Wisconsin working to increase cultural understanding between the people who immigrate to work here and the rural farming community.
The project has two complementary aspects: collecting and sharing stories of the land through zine publications, and immersive long-distance walks to meet people and enact the most fundamental of all human activity: putting one foot in front of another to move across the earth.
Walking + Talking continues this summer through papermaking, storytelling, and collaboration
Patricia returns to Wormfarm in June and July to continue developing Walking + Talking: Stories in Motion—revisiting paths, reconnecting with farmers and farmworkers, and exploring how walking, listening, and handmade paper can carry stories across land and time.
As part of this next phase, Patricia will work with flax grown through the Midwest Linen Revival initiative to make handmade paper for a new series of collaborative drawings and story-based works connected to the walks.
