Five girls who participated in last year’s Girls Rock Internship and Training program – GRITs – have returned this year.
These post-GRITs are collaborating on documenting this year’s camp.
Here are their post-Grit notes:
Shout-out to the Shout Out Wall
One thing that makes Girls Rock! so wonderful is the support, collaboration, and enthusiasm amongst campers.
And what better way to express this awesomeness than through the Shout Out Wall?
This wall is put up on Monday with piles of sticky notes and is open to campers, instructors, and volunteers, and it fills up incredibly quickly with shout outs to everyone!
As you can see by all the outstanding comments, this poster really sums up what a fun, caring, and exciting place Girls Rock! camp is all day, every day.
One tradition at camp is having lunchtime performers.
Today, Roz Raskin, our lovely keyboard instructor, and her band the Rice Cakes played the lunchtime performance for the girls.
As the Post-GRITs, we took it upon ourselves to kick off the dancing.
Little by little, most of the girls stood up and also started dancing.
It was so rad to see them step a little out of their comfort zone and just rock out.
We all really enjoyed the Rice Cakes’ show, and were so glad that they could return this year.
Notes on band practice
As Hump Day comes to an end, the impressive growth these girls have accomplished as individuals and as a group is almost ineffable!
By the middle of the week, each band has made immense progress in their original songs (none of us can wait to hear what they produce at the showcase… as well as when they produce their first records!)
We all have watched as omnipresent observers as they bond and make connections with fellow campers that simply lights up the space-they are the life of the camp, and with each smile they crack, each laugh that squeezes from their lungs they make this space the Wonderland it has been for the past four years.
And just like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, we are exposed to the luminous canvas that is created by their individual personalities, ideas and spirits. The vibrancy of life here is a fairytale that seems too magical to be real!
The post-GRITs lead their own workshop
Starring in their first workshop, the post-GRITs successfully led a workshop reviewing a plethora of topics related to media literacy.
Covering the concepts of gender bias, objectification, as well as analyzation of media, the girls relayed important messages to the campers, allowing them to healthfully review the media constantly surrounding them.
Although one member of the post-GRITs team was unable to appear in person, she inserted a video of herself into the powerpoint, passionately elaborating on portions of the discussion.
To allow the girls to show what they had learned about the media and give them a chance to change negative aspects of it, the girls created their own magazine cover.
These covers portrayed females as confident and human rather than the sexual object they often are shown as.
Comments and the hand made magazine covers allowed women to be “clothed rather than in their birthday suits”.
The post-GRITs gave the campers am amazing tool today, hopefully one they will be able to carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Band logos come to life in merch workshop
Today, each of the bands super excitedly polished the designs that they had worked on together so that they could then create their very own band merchandise, or “merch”, that they will be able to wear to the show.
Let us tell you, it was too much fun seeing the look on the girls’ faces when the finished product was revealed.
They all turned out to be absolutely fabulous.
Having their own logo and actual physical t-shirts gives the girls something else to get excited about because it gives them the feeling of being in a real, big, touring band.
Featured are the shirts of every band: Weather Vanes, Honeybeast, Untitled, Pink Yeties, Black Widows, Rock City of 5, Trouble Tones, The Strangers, The Deep Blue, The New Element, and the G.R.I.T. band Nitty Gritty.
