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Girls Rock Asheville (girlsrockasheville.org) is a six-day camp for girls ages 8 to 16. With no previous experience required, campers learn about making music, and working as a team. The 2015 camp culminated in a pair of showcase concerts at The Mothlight on Saturday, June 27.<\/p>\n
The Girls Rock concept began as a college thesis project. \u201cIt started with a question,\u201d says Girls Rock Asheville’s Executive Director, Erin Kinard<\/strong>. \u201c’Can we do this?’ The answer was yes.\u201d Soon thereafter, the first camp took place in Portland, Oregon. Today, says Kinard, \u201cThere are over sixty camps worldwide, including programs in Peru, Iceland, Austria, and twelve in Sweden.\u201d Kinard got involved in the program through a friend. \u201cOne of my high school friends became the Executive Director of the organization in Portland.\u201d After volunteering there, Kinard moved to Asheville with plans to start a camp here.<\/p>\n \u201cI had been advised to take an entire year to plan,\u201d says Kinard. \u201cSo we were originally thinking about 2015.\u201d But once she put out the word out about her plans, \u201cthe momentum was so strong that we asked ourselves, ‘Why can’t we just do it now?’\u201d The first Girls Rock Asheville (GRAVL) camp took place in July of last year. That camp included 34 girls; this year 36 girls will take part in the program.<\/p>\n GRAVL 2015 begins with band formation, an activity that Kinard calls \u201cthe craziest part of camp.\u201d After soliciting musical genre ideas from the campers, the entire group takes part in a sort of musical-chairs activity. \u201cWhen the music stops, you group up with the people around you, and have a little talk about [a specific music genre]. We do that four or five times, and then the last time, we tell them, ‘Now run to the genre you want<\/em> to play.’ And then from there, groups are formed.\u201d Kinard adds, \u201cMaybe there are some tears, maybe not. Hopefully not. It went perfectly last year.\u201d<\/p>\n Because no prior musical experience is required to participate in GRAVL, the camp features an \u201cinstrument petting zoo.\u201d The girls take some time to explore various musical instruments. \u201cOther camps assign the bands and instrument,\u201d notes Kinard. \u201cThat might be smoother, but we feel that our way is more about the girls’ personal experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n Each day’s camp experience includes band practice; instrument instruction; two workshops; and a lunchtime concert featuring female or female-fronted bands, followed by a Q&A session. Workshops include self-defense; media literacy; female-focused history; storytelling; performance techniques; and heavy metal yoga. Asked to describe that last item, Kinard laughs and says, \u201cIt’s just what it sounds like.\u201d<\/p>\n Kinard emphasizes that GRAVL is \u201can organization for women and by women. A lot of times, [society teaches] women to compete, and to tear each other down. We feel it’s very important for girls to see women working together, leading, being strong in their roles.\u201d The camp also offers full and partial scholarships to economically disadvantaged girls. \u201cNo questions asked,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n Erin Kinard and her GRAVL colleagues have even more ambitious plans for the future. \u201cWe’re hoping to launch a Ladies Rock Camp this fall,\u201d says Kinard. That weekend event raises funds for scholarships. And they hope to expand the program to two sessions beginning in 2016. \u201cThe demand is there,\u201d says Kinard. \u201cIt’s just a matter of staffing it.\u201d If funds and resources allow, the Girls Rock Asheville organization hopes eventually to offer an after-school camp and an overnight program.<\/p>\n As a not-for-profit venture \u2013 Girls Rock Asheville is in the process of applying for 501(c)(3) status \u2013 the organization depends on community support. \u201cRight now,\u201d says Kinard, \u201cthe most pressing matter is food donations.\u201d The need for donated \u2013 or even loaned \u2013 musical instruments and audio gear is a close second. There’s an especially urgent need for guitar and bass practice amplifiers.<\/p>\n Yet another way to support the work of Girls Rock Asheville is via purchase of tickets to the showcase at Mothlight. \u201cCapacity is 350 people,\u201d notes Kinard. \u201cLast year, a lot of people were turned away. We definitely [didn’t] want that to happen again. So this year, [we did] two shows on Saturday, June 27: one at 2pm, and one at 3:30.\u201d<\/p>\n (An edited version of this feature appeared in<\/em> Mountain Xpress.)<\/p>\n Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on <\/a> Girls Rock Asheville (girlsrockasheville.org) is a six-day camp for girls ages 8 to 16. With no previous experience required, campers learn about making music, and working as a team. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,44],"tags":[907],"class_list":["post-8033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-live-shows","tag-girls-rock-asheville","cat-41-id","cat-44-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9022,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8033\/revisions\/9022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/gravl02.jpg\")
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