We Love Music: Girls Rock! DC Camper Showcase @ 930 Club

Girls Rock! DC showcase 2011

For the past week I have had the privilege of volunteering as a band coach for Girls Rock! DC camp. It has been a whirlwind, but Girls Rock! DC camp is coming to a close. The end of camp week is finally upon us. For those of you unfamiliar with GRDC, it is a week-long day camp for Washington, DC area girls, ages 8-18. It teaches girl-empowerment and community building through music. During the week girls receive small-group instruction on instruments,  turntables or digital music, form bands or DJ teams, and collaborate to write a song or DJ set which they perform in a showcase at the end of the week. The camp is completely volunteer-run.

I saw the end-of-camp showcase at the 930 Club last year for the first time. It was awe-inspiring. I am not exaggerating. There was such power and beauty in these little girls, pre-teens and teens getting onstage and just rocking out with such confidence. I knew then that I had to get involved. So this week I’ve been a small part in this awesome girl-powered community, co-coaching a band of 8-10 year olds. The band I’m coaching named themselves “Lightning Diamonds!” How cool is that? Tomorrow at 11am all the campers’ bands will be performing onstage at the 930 Club, a dream lots of adult musicians don’t even get to fulfill!

Come on out and support these girls, the DC music community, and the future of Rock! If you have kids or nieces or nephews or friends with kids, bring them along! All children under 8 are free. It is a truly positive, uplifting event! Girls rock!

Girls Rock! DC Camper showcase

10:30 doors/11am show

$10/kids under 8 free

930 Club

Alexia Kauffman

Alexia was born and raised in Arlington, VA. She has been a cellist since age four, and a lover of rock & roll soon after. The first tape she owned was “Make It Big” by Wham, and the first tape she bought was Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” and she still loves both. She was a member of local synth-rock outfit Soft Complex for several years, and has recorded with bands including Engine Down and Two if By Sea. By day she works for a non-profit distributing royalties to musicians and labels. She currently plays cello, lap-steel guitar and tambourine in the DC post-folk/Americana band The Torches.

2 thoughts on “We Love Music: Girls Rock! DC Camper Showcase @ 930 Club

  1. Powerful stuff! My daughter isn’t a camper this year, but she’s been the three previous years, and it’s been an amazing experience. The showcases are full of joy and celebration and wonderfullness and esteem and POWER. Go!

  2. Girls Rock is cool enrichment program. We have workshops at the school I work at in Dc. They even have a Black Girls Rock. I wonder if it is the same thing? Regardless the program truly rocks.