Young rockers in class, ready to rock

Is your daughter a diva? A musician? A wannabe rocker?

For the past five years in Philadelphia, a group of dedicated professional musicians and music lovers, including educators and parents, have provided a forum for young girls who may aspire to becoming any of the above.

However, Girls Rock Philly (GRP) isn’t just about the music. The organization also wants to provide a nurturing and friendly environment for young girls in an effort to empower them creatively and otherwise.

AT GRP, there is an opportunity for them to thrive, to try something new, something they might have only dreamed about; and to develop a healthy sense of self-esteem in a pop-culture environment that sometimes seems to specialize in only finding ways for young women to feel powerless about themselves, about their body images and about their relationships. There’s a lot happening at Girls Rock Philly and music is the just the vehicle.

No More Boys Club

The original musical venture known as the Girls Rock Philly Camp started out in 2000 on the West Coast with a vision from rock music roadie Misty McElroy, who had grown weary of the male-dominated boys club known as rock music. And McElroy’s inspiration happened long before High School Musical or Glee was even a gleam in any producer’s eye.
McElroy organized the first rock camp in Portland, Oregon catering just to females. Now, over a decade later, the undertaking has begun to spread globally with camps in New York, Chicago, New Zealand, and Japan among others, and the list is growing.

A few years ago, Beth Warshaw-Duncan, who is also a producer at the University of Pennsylvania’s WXPN radio, thought it would be a good idea to open a chapter in Philadelphia. She is now the Executive Director of the Philadelphia branch, which launched its first camp in 2007.

“I first volunteered at a camp in New York. Then I thought . . . we should have one here. I knew a lot of musicians . . . At least I had that much to start with. So, here we are . . . it’s fantastic. We welcome anyone who wishes to come.”
Now, there’s no Boys Only sign posted at the door of female aspirations to make it big in rock.

Rocking Stephen Girard’s Ghost

For one week each summer in August, girls aged 9 through 17 can take part in attending the all-girl day camp (9am to 5pm), which is based at Girard College, in North Philadelphia, at the intersection of Corinthian and Girard Avenues. The cost is $400 and scholarships are available.

Locating the camp at Girard College is a kind of sweet revenge, too, because the school was the scene of many demonstrations and protest marches over 40 years ago when activists worked to overthrow the terms of Stephen Girard’s will that the school should forever be open only to white, male orphans.

Included in the camp’s daily itinerary is musical development, which includes community building and activities lending to educational/musical instruction, all within a socially cooperative atmosphere. Girls of every level of musicianship are encouraged to come, regardless of their musical prowess (or lack thereof).

In addition to receiving coaching on guitar riffs and keyboard runs, the girls also have the opportunity to sing, write songs, make their own band merchandise and learn to DJ. The girls can opt to learn any instrument they wish (guitar, bass, keyboard, drums) and also choose the role they want to play in their own band. Not an instrumentalist? Then, why not try singing . . . or becoming a DJ at the hottest club in town for a week?

In between the classes they’ll attend various workshops, which include music history and women in music.
At the end of the week, the camp attendees perform their song in a showcase performance and record the song in a studio session where they’ll make (and keep) their own CD.

“Everyone is positive and encouraging,” said Warshaw-Duncan of the process. “It [the camp] encourages girls to create their own work in a non-competitive environment. I miss it when the week comes to an end,” she added.

An Enriching Experience

Making friends and learning to work with others toward a uniform goal is also one of the camp’s objectives. Every participant is enriched in many ways by the experience and set on a path that might even carry them beyond the music. But, for the professionals involved, working together for a week with the girls, while striving to create a mutually beneficial endeavor, can exact a price.

As Warshaw-Duncan explains: “I was incredibly tired. You’re trying to keep up with all these kids and you’ve just spent a week in working to create a world you want to see. It’s hard to go back to the real world after that.”

Former camper, Attia Taylor, is now a Temple student. When musing about the days she spent not long ago at Girls Rock Philly, she expressed her joy in what the camp offered.

“I think it went beyond my expectations. At first, I didn’t know what to expect when my music teacher asked if I’d like to go to a music camp for girls.

“I said, absolutely, yes! Before I knew it, I was making music, learning, and immersing myself in a totally positive, female-friendly environment. I had a whole new face on after camp. It opened up a world of possibilities for me and changed me as a person.”

Music – even though the expense of music education is currently under fire in many, many school districts -- has always been used to help develop a young person’s creativity and imagination. In a cooperative and dedicated environment, that the whole concept behind Girls Rock Philly.