Rock on! Girls find power at rock camp
(Al Podgorski/Sun-Times)
Talk to the adult volunteers at Girls Rock! Chicago's summer camp and one comment is consistently repeated: "I sure wish there had been something like this when I was a kid."
Founding board member Melissa Oglesby can relate. As a youngster, she played clarinet and studied classical music, but what she really wanted to get her hands on was a drum set.
"I asked the band teacher if I could play drums, and he said no," said Oglesby, who is now the drummer in the band Lemmy Caution. "At the time, it never occurred to me that I could be in a band. I didn't start playing drums until after college, and then I just dove in and did it."
The Girls Rock! board members and volunteers work hard all week to show campers how to work together as a band. The 17 bands formed during this week's camp, featuring rocker grrrls ages 8-16, will perform at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Metro.
"It's so great for girls at this age to see how this all works," said band coach Stephanie Levi. "Most don't see rock music as their arena. It's still a guy's world out there."
But these are women guiding the young female campers through the rigors of life as a music group. Beginning with band instruction in the morning and two-hour practice sessions in the afternoon, everyone has their work cut out for them. In between, there are workshops ranging from screenprinting and photography to how to play a live show, and rock and activism.
"This is not just an activity, it's an education," volunteer coordinator Lauren Viera said.
Girls Rock! board director Heather Lember, the guitarist/vocalist in Lemmy Caution, says creating new role models in rock music has been a lifelong goal.
"I want to show the girls that they can do it," Lember said. "It's really empowering for them to realize they can pick up a guitar and play."
For several of the campers, shyness is a factor. Performing on stage at Metro is a potentially nerve-wracking experience. But they can find a comrade in even an experienced musican like Oglesby, who admits the jitters never completely leave her when she performs.
"It's more common than you think," Oglesby said. "After a while, you just learn how to deal with it."
And the girls can take comfort in another fact, says Oglesby: "There are a lot of bands out there who never get the chance to play Metro but they did."