WHAT WE’RE DOING

Watershed Stories: A Place to Share Your Tampa Bay Water Memory

Watershed Stories invites Tampa Bay residents to share true memories about local waters, storms, flooding, surfing, scuba diving, swimming, fishing spots, and shorelines through free, three-hour storytelling workshops at libraries and nature preserves.

Participants listen to sound pieces created from water data, reflect on personal experiences, and craft short spoken stories.

Selected recordings become part of a permanent University of South Florida digital archive, and eight community storytellers will perform their stories on stage at an October 2026 showcase event.

PRE-REGISTER FOR A WORKSHOP
https://tinyurl.com/watershed-stories-workshop

 

WORKSHOP VENUES (click for Venue Map)

WHAT IS “SONIFICATION”?

Data sonification lets you feel water stories with your ears, not just see numbers on a page. As water levels, quality, or usage rise and fall, you hear that as shifts in pitch, rhythm, and volume, like a musical tide coming in and out.

When the sound swells, thins out, or becomes unstable, it can trigger your own memories—storms you’ve lived through, favorite swimming spots, a boil‑water notice, a river that felt sacred or unsafe. Those private experiences start to “answer back” to what you’re hearing.

By turning data into sound, the project gives your body and emotions a way into the information. That embodied response often unlocks the stories we all carry about water—stories of joy, fear, loss, and care—and invites you to share them as part of a larger community chorus.