This Saturday, community members will have the chance to celebrate ten years of Girls Rock North Carolina as well as to help fundraise for upcoming years at the Girls Rock NC Rally in Carrboro, NC. The rally, co-presented with Merge Records, includes three different events spanning three different venues over the course of 14 hours, including the ArtsCenter, Cat’s Cradle and The Station.
“In organizing this rally, we wanted to hold ourselves accountable to our own mission,” Heather McEntire, front-woman of Mount Moriah and Program Director of Girls Rock NC, said. “We want people to come to this event and to see the chronology. Kids and parents can come in the morning and experience all of the workshops, then they can see alumni perform, and, then, later in the night, they can see volunteers and staff members perform at the Cradle, and, after that, the headliners. It’s this whole ecosystem.”
The non-profit organization was founded in 2004 by Amelia Shull, an arts educator at the upper school of Carolina Friends School who had been hired after coordinating youth programs for the Durham Arts Council. She wanted to find a way to use her free summers to encourage students of all ages to incorporate the creation of art into their lives. Inspired by the Portland program of the same name, she decided to create a rock and roll camp for girls. In the ten years since its founding, Girls Rock NC has grown from a one week camp at Shull’s school to six different weeks in Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham.
“There are so many amazing women musicians, social workers, activists and educators that got on board right away to help create this program that pretty much incorporated mentorship space where girls could come to camp and be surrounded by women with a variety of strengths,” Shull said. “In 2004, we had fifteen people show up to help. Now, in our tenth year, we have three paid staff members and many more volunteers, but our mission is the exact same as it was from the beginning: amplify the voices of marginalized folks.”
Although the scope of Girls Rock NC now includes after-school programs, a women’s retreat weekend for adults, as well as a new Teen Action League, the Summer Rock Camp for Girls remains the cornerstone of the organization. Over the course of the camp, attendees participate in workshops on confidence, media literacy and, of course, rock and roll.
“I never had that growing up. I never had someone telling me that my voice was important and that I could be musical and write my own lyrics and talk about myself and my feelings,” McEntire said. “This whole organization is devoted to programming and promoting feminism and talking about social justice and really focusing on empowering girls. Girls Rock essentially says ‘you are valued.’”
All of the Girls Rock campers are put into bands and write their own original songs. In a culture where female musicians are more likely to be shown in outrageous outfits and without instruments, it’s a powerful message.
“We want to create an experience at camp where girls are able to hold instruments, to feel like they are driving the vehicle. They can make a loud noise and not be told to quiet down,” Shull said. “Ultimately, we hope it resonates in a way that they know they can stand-up, whether on a stage, or in a classroom or in a life setting.”
Although Shull admits that Girls Rock was hesitant at first to identity as a feminist organization due to the stigma around the term, they now proudly assert themselves as a gender-fluid and inclusive environment. Girls Rock has also made strides in making the program more accessible to the community by expanding its programming and offering scholarships to low-income students.
“We really want to try to honor our roots here and all of the sincere small town connections we have, but we also want to grow and expand to all of the crevices and parts of our community that have not yet heard of Girls Rock,” McEntire said. “Part of that is being able to show what we teach and being able to offer these revolving workshops that are free and interactive, but also to show these powerful women on stage commanding a room full of people. That’s what we do. That’s our mission. And I can’t think of a better way to showcase that.”
The rally this weekend is not just about celebrating ten years of girls rocking out, but also about realizing and moving forward the vision of the Girls Rock mission. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., free and interactive workshops will be open to all genders and ages. These include workshops on songwriting and zine-making, lessons on women in music and the media, as well as do-it-yourself stations for screen printing. From 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., a series of bands will be playing at Cat’s Cradle, including Mount Moriah, Ex Hex and The Julie Ruin, among others. Afterwards, there will be a dance party at The Station with DJ Fifi Hifi and DJ Play Play.
Girls Rock NC hopes to encourage girls to get involved in music by giving the stage to prominent women musicians. But Shull is quick to note that, though the program is entrenched in rock and roll, it has a much broader mission.
“We’re not just about creating musicians; we are also about creating change in the community around individual expression,” Shull said. “It really is our way of trying to work with girls on how they can try to speak up and be more confident. This resonates into their families, their little brothers, aunts, uncles and all who see them perform. We don’t see enough girls playing instruments, but when we do, girls know that they can be who they want to be, achieve what they want to achieve.”
To find out more information about Girls Rock NC, visit their website at http://www.girlsrocknc.org/. Tickets can be purchased on their rally page at http://www.girlsrocknc.org/grnc-rally.
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