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Written by asap
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Monday, 07 August 2006 |
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"I learned how to compromise somewhat. And I love making buttons and shirts and playing drums. I mean, I learned how to play drums completely."
For 10-year-old Grace Bergere, that tidily sums up her week-long experience at the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls.
But rock 'n' roll isn't completely tidy. And it shouldn't be.
Grace was speaking from inside the New York Society for Ethical Culture where her barely week-old band the Fluffy Skulls was preparing to hit the stage in front of a packed house to play their original song "A Really Random Story."
It was a week where Grace and 67 other girls aged 8-18 took instrument lessons, formed a band, wrote an original song and got to practice the very adult sport of negotiating group dynamics.
Grace, and her bandmates Nazra Channer, Kayla Lavelle and Zoe Alverio-Chaveco, worked through what is known in rock parlance as "creative differences" with the help of energetic and involved band coaches Caryn Havlik and Elizabeth Giddens.
And the process highlighted that while the camp's purported purpose is to teach girls how to rock, rock is just a metaphor for kicking butt. There's power in taking a stage, in holding a mic, in making noise with a drum. The lessons of rock camp have the potential to train girls to not only take over MTV, but to commandeer the board room, the state house, the pulpit and other platforms that confer authority. Oh yeah, it's totally fun, too.
asap followed one girl band — the Fluffy Skulls — from formation to final performance as a way to highlight the rock camp experience in a special podcast. Click here!
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