About Climate Stories Project

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Climate Stories Project (CSP) is an educational and artistic forum for sharing stories about personal and community responses to climate change. CSP focuses on personal oral histories, which bring an immediacy to the sometimes abstract nature of climate change communication. Some of us may recount dramatic events such as floods and wildfires, or we may address our observations of changes in seasonal patterns and our fears for the future of our families and communities. We may discuss how climate change is forcing our communities to adapt to extreme weather and sea level rise. Or we may speak about how we are getting involved in movements to build more resilient futures and to fight the fossil fuel industry through community organizing or nonviolent protest. There is no "right" way to talk about climate change as it is a vast topic that is increasingly touching every corner of our lives. 

In addition, some climate stories are being used as the basis for music and soundscape pieces that allow audiences to witness the effects of climate change in a novel way. By presenting climate change narratives through music, Climate Stories Project reaches new audiences that may not be currently engaged with the effects of climate change. These pieces can be found on the Climate Music page.

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Photo credit: Randy Cole

Jason Davis, Director, is a musician, environmental educator, and leader of the environmental sound and improvisation ensemble Earthsound. He teaches music and environmental studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. In fall 2022 served as the Basler Chair at East Tennessee State University.  Jason holds a Doctorate in music from McGill University in Montreal and has Master's degrees in Music and Ecology. Jason was inspired to create Climate Stories Project from listening to Different Trains by composer Steve Reich, a piece which uses recorded interviews to explore the very different experiences of people traveling by train in the US and in Europe during World War II. Jason's goal is to create a "living artistic documentary" that engages audiences to share and listen to personal responses to climate change.

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Kelly Hydrick, Program Manager, is a historian, visual artist, and librarian-archivist, and works as a Humanities Research Associate at MIT Libraries. She initially became interested in climate change communication after reading Amitav Ghosh’s book, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, which investigates the lack of climate change representation in modern fiction. Kelly realized that there was a profound disconnect between the ways people learn, think, and ultimately communicate about climate change. During the summer of 2020 she discovered Climate Stories Project and participated in the first cohort of Climate Stories Ambassadors. Kelly now teaches the Ambassadors workshops at CSP and brings issues of climate change communication to her work as a librarian-archivist.   ​

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Brigid Miller, Program Manager, is a public historian currently working in Outreach and Programming for an arts-based non profit in Chicago, IL. Brigid received a B.A. in History and Gender Studies from St. Olaf College and recently earned a Master’s Degree in Public History and Cultural Heritage from Trinity College Dublin. After working with a community group in Dublin and hearing their stories of climate change, Brigid was inspired to focus her postgraduate research on the intersection of climate change and heritage, specifically oral histories, and this led her to discover Climate Stories Project. She believes that recording and sharing climate stories is vital in order to connect people with the climate crisis, promote solidarity, and inspire others to take action. 

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