8
street roots
May 23, 2014
Back
beat
Beth Wooten, the executive director o f Rock ‘n ’
Roll Camp fo r Girls, on the international
appeal o f empowering women —young and old
BY SUE ZALOKAR
STAFF WRITER, |
A fter graduating from law school, Beth
Wooten found herself hundreds of
JLthousands of dollars in debt, in a
dismal job market, at the height of the
recession. She decided to forgo taking the
bar exarti and look to other work options.
She turned to another calling — her music
and activism for young women. In 2012, she
became the executive director for the
Portland Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls.
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls was
»^»fetmd e d'in‘2001.-it woo part of a s e nior "■ >»
X
p ro ject by M isty M cElroy, th e n a w om en’s
studies major at Portland State University.
Just over a decade later, there are girls’ rock
camps in cities across the country - more
than 40 worldwide, including one in the
Islamic country Bahrain. The organization
makes it clear: Yes, rock ‘n’ roll is in its
title, but this is really about girls finding the
beat of your own drum, and amplifying their
voice for social change.
S u e Z alokar: I t ’s so im portant to celebrate
m usic fo r m usic ’s sake. From w hat I ’ve been
able togather, the camp really does a lo t to
build this idea in the m inds o f campers. I t ’ not
about being a Superstar, it ’s about the joy o f
m usic passing through you.
Beth Wooten: Definitely. We try to
create that environment for the girls. What
is a band? A band is kind of an imaginary
Space you create with your friends.
(Laughter). We try to focus on '
that and the collaboration and the shared
experience over any type of battle of the
bands environment.
S .2.: You said that yo u volunteered fo r the
Brooklyn camp first, I thought the Portland
camp was the fir s t camp?
B.W.: The Portland camp was the first
camp. It, just wasn’t my first experience. J~
believe the Brooklyn camp was the second
one. And now there are over 40 worldwide.
There is an organization called the Girls.
Roek- Gamp A llianc e. Bu i we are -all our own
nonprofits. We’re all kind of out there
independently trying to figure out how to
make the best camp for our individual
communities. But we have a really great
network that is maintained through the
Girls Rock Camp Alliance. There is a lot of
networking and skill sharing - which is
really nice because nonprofits can have
some ups and downs, so it’s nice to have
that support.
S.Z.: W/zy girls a n d women only?
B.W.: We want to create a safe space for
them to express themselves and explore a
way of understanding themselves or relating
to each other that they might not get at
school.
It’s also really fun. It’s just a week.
We teach music but we also teach a self-;
defense workshop and we teach workshops
on interrupting oppression or the history of
women in popular
music. These
kinds
P H O T O B Y SUE Z A L O K A R
of workshops present the opportunity for
topics to come up, and; it’s kind of good'to
have that safe space for girls to feel
comfortable expressing themselves. And
maybe feel comfortable expressing different
emotions.
I feel like sometimes when we talk about
programs for girls, or we talk about young
girls, there is sometimes this anxiety that
they are going to fall into some sort of self
esteem hole j we don’t help them out. And
there are a lot of mixed messages that are
directed at girls. At Rock Camp we try to
just encourage them to express a wide-
range of emotions. So if they are feeling
angry, we can talk about the structural
reasons for their anger. We can identify and
dismantle together these emotions. Maybe
even write a song, ,
It’s also nice to have a girl space because
it allows for mentorship. In so many fields,
there will be the girl or the woman who
succeeds - the singularity. At Rock Camp,
we’re all girls; we don’t look a certain way.
Cany> offers a wide range of what girlhood
can look like.
S«Z.: I t strikes me, as women
a n d girls, we are
bombarded with images a n d impressions o f
w hat we should look like or how we should act.
B y adolescence, girls have already come to feel
pretty in sexy, revealing clothing. T hat k in d o f
goes against the fem in ist perspective o f Rock
Camp. I a m wondering about that
idiosyncrasy. I wonder i f that exists? I mean,
they’re teenage girls, so it must.
B.W.: It is something that we talk about
That can feel conflicting. We try really hard
to not censor or act as surveillance. We try
to create conversation around that. We have
to Work, as staff and volunteers, to check
ourselves. Am I worried about this girl
because she’s wearing a tank top or am I
worried about this girl because I have some
ingrained sense-of moral panic in society
that is always going to fall on teenage girls?
We’re not trying to police their
expression in anyway. But we have had
workshops where we have talked about that
pressure to express yourself or your
sexuality in a certain way and how, that
might be aligned with advertising. We try
not to predetermine what’s appropriate for
girls to think about and express
because it’s all out there, and
they are all exposed to it.
S.Z.: You also offer a
Ladies Rock Camp fo r
“big g rrrls” (21+).
B.W.: Ladies Rock Gamp
is for women, 21 and up.
It’s kind of the Girls Rock
Gamp model, but it’s