Girls Rock NC celebrates 10th anniversary in Carrboro

When Amelia Shull was a young girl, her aunt sent her to a summer arts camp where Shull said she felt free to create and explore who she was.

As an adult, Shull aims to give girls in the Triangle area the same experience — which is why she helped found Girls Rock North Carolina, an organization that has now been working to empower girls and women for ten years.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Girls Rock N.C. held an all-day fundraising festival at the Carrboro ArtsCenter, a concert at Cat's Cradle and a dance party at The Station Saturday.

“It’s a big celebration, because it feels like we have grown in a way that has been healthy and has reached out to different facets of the community,” said Shull, who is co-chair of the Girls Rock board of directors and the organization's event director. 

“We wanted to celebrate that it’s been ten years, that we’ve been an organization, that our ability to reach different places in our community is strong."

Girls Rock, a Triangle based nonprofit, uses art and music to help girls and women build confidence in themselves and get involved in their communities.

The organization hosts several annual programs, the largest of which is their Rock Camp for Girls, a week-long summer program in which girls form bands, write original music with their peers in workshops and perform their songs at the end of the week in a community concert. 

Girls Rock also offers an after-school program and a Women’s Rock Retreat Weekend for adults. The organization serves more than 300 girls every year. 

The first Girls Rock camp began in Portland, Ore. in 2001. In 2004, Girls Rock N.C. was founded by Abigail Sherriff, Amelia Shull and Beth Turner. The trio held their first camp for 29 girls at Carolina Friends School.

Shull said she hoped this weekend's event would showcase the organization to families and potential campers interested in becoming involved.

"That's why we are having so many different types of workshops available right now, for anybody who is interested in camp and curious about it," she said.

At the event, there were several workshops for children to participate in, including screen printing t-shirts, making magazines, playing instruments and drawing decals and patches.

"They can do all of these for free and kind of get a sense of what the spirit is and what the goal is," Shull said.

Raleigh resident and musician Rachel Hirsh ran a workshop on writing songs. She had the girls get into groups and taught them about the basic structure of songwriting. The groups then wrote raps, and she helped mesh them together to make a song the girls could perform at the end. 

Hirsh said she is glad these girls get such personal exposure to music at such a young age.

"Music as a teenager definitely helped me get through some pretty tough times, and it’s a very empowering thing for young women to learn to do, 'cause it’s kind of a boys' club in the band world," she said.

At 6 p.m., a series of concerts took place at Cat's Cradle, including bands Cosmic Punk, Shirlette Ammons, Pink Flag, Mount Moriah, Silent Lunch, Ex Hex, Midnight Plus One and The Julie Ruin.

Shull said she also hoped the event would bring attention to a new fundraising program that supports several Girls Rock initiatives, including a scholarship program for low-income girls. She said Girls Rock is working on making its programs more accessible.

"We can do more outreach for economically diverse families and provide more free and affordable pricing for our programs,” she said.

Event volunteer Lauren Feilich, a Duke University student, said she is pleased an event like this exists, even though this was her first experience with the organization.

“There’s definitely a vacuum where events like this need to exist," Feilich said. 

"For not just young girls, but for people who are working here and the network it’s creating and the community that is forming.”

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