By Walt Belcher and Jim Kissane
Water. We all have stories about water. As Florida residents we are surrounded by it.
We enjoy it, from the multitude of springs to a coastline that wraps most of the state.
When there are prolonged droughts, we worry. When sea levels start rising, we worry.
And many of us have memories about storms, flooding, surfing, scuba diving, swimming, fishing spots, tubing down streams, and sharing space with the flora and fauna of the swamps.
The Suncoast Storytellers Inc, based in St. Petersburg, has embarked on an ambitious Watershed Stories project, a year-long, grant-funded, environmental humanities effort unfolding in three connected phases. The initial grant is $10,000.
Beginning in April, there will be several three-hour storytelling workshops at libraries and nature preserves in the Tampa Bay area.
Volunteer participants will hear sound pieces created from water data, and then reflect on personal experiences, and then be able to craft short spoken stories. These sound pieces, known as “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 shifts in pitch, rhythm, and volume, like a musical tide coming in and out.
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.
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.
Selected recordings will be 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.
In the coming months there will be five free community workshops at environmental centers around Tampa Bay.
The Suncoast Storytellers are inviting area residents, including students, neighborhood leaders, and environmental volunteers, to attend the workshops, and share their impressions, memories and observations about nearby rivers, creeks, bays, and coastlines.
In these sessions, participants work with experienced guild storytellers to shape those reflections into short, first-person narratives recorded as broadcast-quality audio.
In the next phase, a handful of selected participants will receive individual coaching from Suncoast members over the next three months to refine story structure, clarify key moments, and build performance confidence in preparation for sharing short stories with wider audiences, including the October showcase event.
Visit Watershed Stories – Suncoast Storytellers for more information.