After graduating from law school, Beth Wooten found herself hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, in a dismal job market, at the height of the recession. She decided to forgo taking the bar exam 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 founded in 2001. It was part of a senior project by Misty McElroy, then a women’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.Sue Zalokar: It’s so important to celebrate music for music’s sake. From what I’ve been able to gather, the camp really does a lot to build this idea in the minds of campers. It’ not about being a superstar, it’s about the joy of music 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.Z.: You said that you volunteered for the Brooklyn camp first, I thought the Portland camp was the first camp? B.W.: The Portland camp was the first camp. It just wasn’t my first experience. I believe the Brooklyn camp was the second one. And now there are over 40 worldwide. There is an organization called the Girls Rock Camp Alliance. But 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 S.Z.: Why girls and 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.
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 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 if 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. Camp offers a wide range of what girlhood can look like. S.Z.: It strikes me, as women and girls, we are constantly bombarded with images and impressions of what we should look like or how we should act. By adolescence, girls have already come to feel pretty in sexy, revealing clothing. That kind of goes against the feminist perspective of Rock Camp. I am wondering about that idiosyncrasy. I wonder if 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 for “big grrrls” (21+). B.W.: Ladies Rock Camp is for women, 21 and up. It’s kind of the Girls Rock Camp model, but it’s condensed into a three-day weekend. They write an original song in three days. I’m a musician and think that is terrifying. I’m amazed that people have so much enthusiasm for it. It’s really inspiring to experience.
It’s also wonderful because it creates an opportunity for community building and networking for women who might volunteer for the girls’ camp as well. And tuition from Ladies Rock Camp can go toward financial aid for the girls’ camp. S.Z.: How many campers come from outside of Portland? B.W.: Earlier on, there was a greater number of girls coming from out of town. But now that there are so many Rock Camps everywhere, we get fewer out-of-towners. S.Z.: Tell me about the invitation to take the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp to Bahrain. B.W.: That came kind of out of the blue. The public affairs officer from the U.S. Embassy of Bahrain, Brad Niemann sent us an email. He is married to Haifaa Al Mansour, the first female Saudi filmmaker. Her film “Wadja” (2012) was the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia. They contacted us and said that they do kids programs in the Middle East and would we be interested in doing a Girl’s Rock Camp.
It took some thinking … and pondering. “Is this real?” It took a little homework. I thought, “Well, if there are women in Bahrain who are interested in doing this with us, then yes. I want to do it.”
I started emailing people that I knew who had been to the Middle East or knew something about Bahrain. I was able to get in touch with a woman named Wadeeah (Al Meshkhas) who is 22 years old and a musician in Bahrain.
We started e-mailing. She told me she was doing a student exchange program and was going to be in Seattle. I was able to meet her and we were able to hash it out. What would this look like? My concerns, her concerns. I really didn’t want to just fly out there and do a camp as it looks in Portland. I wanted it to be a conversation with female musicians in Bahrain.
We were there 10 days. It was very different than the Portland Rock Camp. We didn’t have as many instruments, it was way more improvisational. But 45 girls showed up. It was a blast.
There were two music stores in Bahrain. They were so kind to us. They closed their shops and let us use their practice rooms. It was really exciting. S.Z.: What is the importance of bringing the camp to Bahrain? B.W.: You’d have to ask the girls what they thought of the experience.
For me, it was meeting the girls. Getting to know what their life is like. It was so similar. It was different in that … you know how you asked me the “Why girls only?” question? Over there it’s for the most part gender-segregated education. So why girls? – there was no questioning that. It was just understood – it’s the music camp for girls.
The songs were strikingly thematically similar. It was a lot of “I hate school, I love music, school sucks, I put in my headphones, everything is OK.” S.Z.: Are the issues of adolescent girls universal? B.W.: Yes. “You can’t tell me what to think. You can’t tell me what to say.”S.Z.: I imagine, here in Portland, you have return campers who help create that excitement… B.W.: Exactly. It was different too in that (in Bahrain) we had four guitars and two basses and one drum set and 45 girls. Whereas here, we have 30 guitars and 15 girls taking guitar classes. We talked a lot about collaboration and sharing. The girls in Bahrain were so excited to have the program that it seemed that sharing wasn’t an issue.
I was teaching the guitar class and I would show them an E chord. And then three girls would play it and then teach it to the three other girls. It was a great opportunity for peer mentoring. S.Z.: Will you go back? B.W.: Yes! In August, with the idea that Wadeeah will hold the leadership role now. S.Z.: What is it about girls and women playing music together that is so fantastic? B.W.: I think some of it has to do with the fact that we aren’t necessarily socialized to take up a lot of space; and music often requires amplification. Rock music has an anti-authoritative aesthetic to it. So that can be really compelling. It’s just a release. This song that you write this week doesn’t have to define you. But you can kind of let something out of you or try on an emotion and see how it feels and try to connect with other people.
