Girls, transgender, and gender non-conforming youth should have the same opportunities as their male peers, but that’s not always the case! Girls Rock New Orleans uses music education to empower youth and promote social and gender justice. We are committed to bringing together a racially and socioeconomically diverse group of campers and volunteers and to creating a safe, non-male-dominated space.

Our inaugural camp is taking place this summer, during the first week of July, with 35 campers and approximately 30 volunteers at the Waldorf School of New Orleans. During this week each camper will learn to play the guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, drums, trumpet, or trombone. Campers will be grouped into bands of five (each camper with a different instrument) with which they will practice daily to write and an original song. No musical experience is necessary to attend rock camp. We believe, and have experienced at other camps, that campers are fully capable of writing amazing songs in 5 days! In addition to instrument instruction and band practice, campers will engage in two workshops each day. Workshops include Music Herstory, Self-Defense and Self-Esteem, Band Merch (screening printing shirts/patches, and button making) and DIY show booking and promotion, Experimental Instruments and Sounds, and more that are still being developed. Each day we will host a lunchtime performance by local female or female-identified musicians, ranging in genre. These visiting musicians will expose our campers to different types of music and role models.

Girls Rock New Orleans is inspired by Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls, founded in Portland in 2001, and is a member of the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, an international organization of rock camps. In our future we seek to become a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and expand our programming year round into after-school education.