Girls Rock Philly: Using Music to Empower Young Girls
I Love Rock n Roll
I Dearest Rock n Whorl
Girls Rock Philly uses music, and being in a ring, as a manner to empower girls
Mar. xvi, 2016
"As a daughter in a dress, the assumption is you're there to service the ring," writes stone critic Lizzy Goodman. You know what she means. When information technology comes to rock and roll, woman musicians are oft however considered anomalies: Out of Spin's current "fifty Best Rock Bands Right Now," simply xvi had women members (and of these 16, most had simply a unmarried woman). Closer to home, for the dates March 9-March 31, Johnny Brenda'south volition host 29 alive acts, but five of which contain women artists.
Enter Girls Rock Philly, an innovative programme for pre-teen and teenaged girls and all youth who are female/non-binary-identified that uses music education summer camps and afterschool programs not merely to create pathways into the music manufacture, only also to encourage leadership, inventiveness, disquisitional thinking and collaboration in all areas of their lives. (GRP currently describes its participants as girls, but is considering changing its name to be more inclusive.) Through music, Girls Rock Philly seeks to fight against the self-doubt and low self-worth that many immature girls face.
"This camp isn't about identifying a defect in girls and fixing information technology," says GRP Program Director Diane Foglizzo. "We want to live in a different world than nosotros do now, and nosotros call up that by creating a infinite for immature people to come up together effectually music, we can support them to alter those things."
Girls Rock Philly began in 2006 out of a nationwide motion to create more music mentorship and empowerment programs for young girls beyond the U.s.a.. Girls rock camps were popping up in other cities, like Washington DC, where Foglizzo lived. "As educators, activists and organizers, musicians and community workers, we wanted to create an intentional space for girls to express themselves, make new friends and build community," says Foglizzo, who was likewise part of starting the Girls Rock Military camp Alliance, an international brotherhood of 60 girls rock camps all over the world.
Meanwhile, another fellow member of this movement—WXPN radio producer and Penn professor Beth Warshaw-Duncan—brought the starting time i-week Girls Rock summer program to Philly in summer 2007 with xx campers. The girls chose an musical instrument, formed a band with other campers they'd never met before and over the course of the week wrote an original song. The program culminated in a final functioning in which each band performed their creations for a alive audition.
"For many of them, they've never had much experience with an instrument, and to be immersed in it and come out with something equally physical every bit a song, information technology's really incredible," says Andrea Jácome, GRP artistic director.
Now Girls Rock Philly serves over 140 girls a year, offering a sliding scale tuition from $50 (or even a gratuitous scholarship) to $400, depending on income, and their final showcases are held at stone venues like Wedlock Transfer and The Troc. (Girls Rock Philly is accepting applications for the upcoming summertime until May.) In an activeness-packed seven days, the campers get lessons on the instrument they've chosen—drums, bass, keys, guitar, or DJ crew— and nourish 10 empowerment workshops around the year's theme.
In 2015, for example, the theme of the camp was #youthrising. So each solar day campers studied dissimilar youth activists that were inspiring and contributed to social modify in Philadelphia or beyond. The workshops, all taught by volunteers, were on topics similar learning how to use loop pedal, self defense, consent or analyzing a Janelle Monáe video for what it can teach us about race and grade. Jácome says the workshops are held together by mutual themes of social justice, what it means to be a daughter or female-identified person in the world, and creative expression.
This starts from the first assembly of every mean solar day, in which GRP campers make a group understanding nearly how they wish to treat each other and the blazon of community space they want to create. Staff members encourage the girls to create their own rules for camp rather than imposing pre-established ones.
"We're creating a infinite where we're not dictating what to do. Instead of maxim, 'Do this!' we enquire 'What would make you feel good?'," Jácome says. "Instead of saying, 'Don't be mean,' we're saying 'What would y'all want to see in an platonic space?'"
In addition to this signature program, Girls Rock Philly offers several other opportunities to connect with fellow musicians and strop musical skills, including a Summertime Music Institute—five weeks of intensive music teaching that likewise offers a feminist framework and field trips around Philadelphia; an afterward school program in their Fishtown headquarters; a resource library on music and feminism; rehearsal rooms; group and individual music lessons; and a gear loan program for do at abode. There's even a Ladies Rock Army camp, which offers the aforementioned experience to women and gender nonconforming folks xix and higher up over the course of two intensive weekends per year.
"It was one of the best things I did in Philly," says Sophie Hwang, an LRC camper in the DJ crew. "Such a swell space to run across other adventurous, like-minded women folk."
Hwang says there was a spirit of collaboration and community that prevailed over the grade of the weekend that is rare to observe in developed artistic spaces. Through a combination of group lessons and individual work, she learned how to spin and create a set list, and that it was OK to make mistakes. Hwang underscores that some bands formed that weekend have continued performing together, even booking gigs at venues like LAVA Space, and that Girls Stone Philly gave her the opportunity to perform once again at a festival in Kensington.
Bated from its viii program staff, Girls Rock Philly is run and taught entirely by volunteers, a testament to the entreatment of its larger message. "Information technology'south learning nigh the globe through learning about music," says Liana Moskowitz, a volunteer at campsite in summer 2015. "The spirit is, let's create the world nosotros want to be in and and then live in it with these kids."
There is something about music that makes the world GRP wants to create seem possible—perhaps its universal appeal, perhaps the way it prompts the players and the listeners to motion and heed to their bodies.
"Music is actually unique in bringing then many people to the tabular array," says Jácome. "It's an opportunity to really piece of work and build together across differences. When you make music together, you lot take to be vulnerable together, to brand mistakes, to take a real chat and piece of work through problems."
Header Photo: Courtesy of Girls Stone Philly
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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/girls-rock-philly-empower/
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