At the time Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Stephen Garofano was a twenty-eight-year-old professional musician living in New Orleans. He says, “In the aftermath of the storm, my diary began to feel like an important document of the historical tragedy unfolding around me, as well as a tether to reality and a lifeline to myself.” An opera lover, Garofano was listening to Verdi’s Il Trovatore on a rainy night in the months following Katrina when the line “La tempesta del mio cuore” (the storm of my heart) struck him deeply. Feeling the tempest within himself in so many ways, the line became not only the title of this piece, but also a tattoo on his arm. Garofano goes on to say, “My experience of the storm shaped me in ways that I continue to realize these twenty years on. Given that generational span of time, and the short memory of our culture, it feels important for me to now open my journal to others and communicate that experience.”