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Webre’s farewell

Long-time Washington Ballet artistic director reflects

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Septime Webre, gay news, Washington Blade
Septime Webre, gay news, Washington Blade

Septime Webre, artistic director of the Washington Ballet since 1999, says he worked to fuse classical ballet elements with contemporary and popular art during his tenure. (Washington Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)

Imagination Stage Presents ‘The Little Mermaid’
 
 
In collaboration with the Washington Ballet
 
 
Continues through Aug. 14
 
 
Lerner Family Theatre
 
 
4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda
 
 
Tickets start at $10
 
 
imaginationstage.org
 

Septime Webre didn’t plan on ‘The Little Mermaid,’ an Imagination Stage production produced in collaboration with the Washington Ballet, to be his swan song. It just kind of worked out that way.

But the 54-year-old co-choreographer says everything the Ballet has done this season — he mentions the April “Carmina Burana” performances and the “Bowie & Queen” rock show in May — as being fitting farewells. He wrapped his tenure at the Ballet this week and will join the S&R Foundation, a non-profit started in 2000 by Sachiko Kuno and Ryuji Ueno to support artists and scientists, as its artistic director.

During a Washington Blade interview, Webre — who lives in Adams Morgan with his partner of five years, Marc Cipullo — shared his philosophies, struggles and plans. His comments have been edited for length.

WASHINGTON BLADE: Why are you leaving?

SEPTIME WEBRE: I feel great about my accomplishments here. It’s grown amazingly. But particularly in the last few years, I’ve had a yearning to be in the studio a bit more. Being the director of a company, there are administration duties, PR duties, marketing duties, all that’s involved in overseeing an organization that has grown from a $2 million to a $12 million budget, so I had already been thinking that maybe another chapter would be interesting to really focus on creativity and less institution building for a while. That coincided with a blossoming of my work as a freelance artist in the last few years.

BLADE: Was the managerial aspect stultifying?

WEBRE: No. I’ve enjoyed all that institution building and felt like I wanted to do that while I was still somewhat young and energetic, or at least while my Grindr age was still young. I’m 54 but I skew young. I’m an energetic kind-of guy. So those duties weren’t stultifying, but they certainly got in the way of creating new work. In the last several years, I’ve done full-length ballets based on “The Great Gatsby,” on Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” last year I did a Washington Irving project and also “Alice in Wonderland.” These works have been much in demand over the last five or six years and I’ve also had some commissions by other companies.

BLADE: I assume the name recognition of these works helps?

WEBRE: That’s part of it but it’s also the return of narrative works in ballet after the era of modernism, which was my generation, and an aesthetic dominated by George Balanchine and Merce Cunningham. These were abstract artists and from the mid-century through the time I was dancing, serious choreographers really didn’t tackle narratives. It was not considered serious. But during my choreographic career, I began to tackle them because in many ways, it’s who I am. There’s something inside of me, this boisterous Cuban family and the brothers on the weekend, all we do is get together and drink cold Mexican beer and tell stories. So I was naturally drawn to these great books and they also happen to sell tickets.

BLADE: You were part of a larger trend with this?

WEBRE: I would say I was an early adopter of the return to narrative. … You could feel it in the air, particularly in the ‘90s. … It was a convergence of factors — the death of George Balanchine in the early ‘80s, we had been through modernism and that era and something new was needed. … Also just with the financial realities in the world, ballet companies were increasingly having to rely on box office in a financially challenging market and those story ballets sold better. … I was just on the front of a trend.

BLADE: How much of your work roughly has been choreographing vs. other duties at the Washington Ballet and did that change over time?

WEBRE: I’ve been creating a new work about every two years. That’s probably been the average. In the early years we did one a year, but they were smaller works. I would put my work into three different buckets. One is the creation of new ballet, the second is programmatic creativity, which I found really exciting. Curating repertoire, teaching, developing dancers, developing ancillary programs that are not creating ballets, but they’re really creative like the beerballet&bubbly series that brought thousands and thousands of Millennials in to watch rehearsals. … A third would be institution building.

BLADE: Did you ruffle many feathers along the way?

WEBRE: I never felt I ruffled feathers precisely, but I tried to push the envelope. I took over the Washington Ballet from Mary Day, who was 89 years old when I became the director. She was a fabulous visionary, but the company was a bit sleepy. She had a great aesthetic and she loved classical ballet and she loved new work, so there was a connection I had with her. But right away, the company began to grow. The audiences began to grow, we had standing ovations at every show the first run. In my first year, I took the Washington Ballet to Cuba, we produced a “Carmina Burana” that was, at that time, very unprecedented for us. Those first programs were so popular that a buzz developed very early on.

BLADE: You make it all sound so easy, though. What obstacles did you encounter?

WEBRE: Well, without a doubt our huge labor dispute in 2005. That was immense. We had grown so rapidly over the course of my first five years — the number of performances had probably doubled — we had grown, but the admin support hadn’t grown with it. …. We were working on a huge, new version of “The Nutcracker,” a huge project, and in the midst of that, the dancers very appropriately decided to join a union. That was the right time in our organization’s history to do that, but over the course of negotiating that first contract, which took a year, our “Nutcracker” was canceled and we lost a million dollars. The dancers were out of work for months and there was so much acrimony. We were in the Washington Post every day for 19 days, I think. …. But we were eventually able to settle it when we got the lawyers out of it. We settled in March 2006 and went back to work in April. That was a big one. …. Another challenge was in 2009 when the City Council eliminated earmarks. They rescinded that appropriation two months into our fiscal year and so suddenly we had a million dollar hole and we had to scramble. We had to cancel our “Nutcracker” orchestra to save $350,000 and we performed to taped music, just because otherwise we were not going to survive.

Septime Webre, gay news, Washington Blade

Septime Webre in rehearsal for ‘The Little Mermaid’ at the Washington Ballet studios on Wisconsin Avenue on June 10. (Washington Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)

BLADE: What kind of learning curve did you have here?

WEBRE: I had some strong mentors and I was able to steal some of their ideas. But before this, although I had a little bit of training when I was a director for six years in Princeton, N.J., so my work there really impressed on me that you have to take your work with the audience a step further. You’re not in an ivory tower. You can’t just sort of hang the shingle and hope they’ll come and understand what you’re doing. You have to connect with them more deeply. I’d had some trial and error with that in New Jersey. So I came here with a conviction that the Washington Ballet had to connect with the social fabric of the city and we’ve done that in multiple ways with our outreach programs in Anacostia, Dance DC in public schools, beerballet&bubbly for young professionals, our Latino programs, etc.

BLADE: How have the dancers changed over the time you’ve been here?

WEBRE: About five years into my tenure here, just before the labor dispute actually, we’d never done any full-length classical ballets. No “Giselle,” “Coppelia” or “Don Quixote.” Mary Day never chose to do that because American Ballet was already doing that kind of repertoire at the Kennedy Center. I sensed a kind of unspoken inferiority complex around the organization. No one said it, but I could sense that the dancers thought we couldn’t handle it, our staff thought we couldn’t handle it, our audiences thought we couldn’t do it. A dancer’s career is so short, a dancer wants to dance the full repertory they were trained for, so I made a decision about four years in to slowly, methodically begin to introduce some full-length 19th Century classical works into the repertoire. … I think that helped us be seen as a grown-up company and that’s led to really, really high-powered dancers and a higher quality of dancer. Younger dancers today are coming in with a lot more technique and what a dancer can do now compared with 15 years ago or when I retired 20 years ago, oh my God — they’re doing all this crazy crap that hadn’t even been invented yet. Just like in athletics, the technique has risen, risen, risen.

BLADE: How has being gay affected your career or has it?

WEBRE: The dancers themselves are much less gay than the public imagines. … As I was getting into admin work and started working with board members … I actually found it to be an asset. This is going to sound very retro, but it gave me a kind of exoticism. … They were a lot of businessmen who didn’t necessarily have gay friends, so now they did and it made them feel good about themselves.

BLADE: Are classical works and pop/contemporary works strange bedfellows in the ballet world?

WEBRE: Well, “Giselle” sold significantly less well than “The Great Gatsby” or than “Bowie & Queen.” “Don Quixote” sold less than “The Sun Also Rises” or “The British Invasion.” What I found was that when classical, lofty art remained itself and didn’t get a bit dirty, it was less popular from a ticket sale standpoint. So we remained ballet, but we got down and dirty with Freddie Mercury wailing sometimes. That collision creates a buzz and a connection. … But things are always colliding and mixing in a postmodern world. I mean, I wish everyone loved “Giselle” as much as I do, but it’s also exciting because ballet is a language just like you use the same English language for Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson or Mad Magazine.

Septime Webre, gay news, Washington Blade

The cast of ‘The Little Mermaid.’ (Photo courtesy Imagination Stage)

Jesse Arnholz contributed to this interview.

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‘Tiger’ burning bright: an interview with Mary Timony

Today’s female-driven music scene wouldn’t be the same without her

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Mary Timony is back with a new album. (Photo by Chris Grady)

It’s hard to imagine what the current female-driven music scene would be like without Mary Timony. From Sleater-Kinney to Haim, from Angel Olsen to Mitski, the influence of Mary Timony is in every note being played, every word being sung. On her new solo album, “Untame The Tiger” (Merge), with its sly nod to Joni Mitchell, Timony has brought her many years of musical experience to the fore, resulting in what is easily her most accessible release. Beginning with the incredible six-plus minute opener “No Thirds” and continuing through the first single, “Dominoes,” and gorgeous numbers including “The Guest,” “The Dream,” and “Not The Only One,” Timony is assured to keep listeners purring along. Timony made time for an interview shortly before the album was released.

BLADE: Mary, I’d like to begin by talking to you about your musical lives in D.C. and Boston. I went to college in Boston in the early 1980s and was constantly amazed by the bands of the era such as Mission of Burma, Human Sexual Response, and ‘Til Tuesday. I moved to D.C. in the mid-1980s to go to grad school, and at the time, the music scene there was dominated by go-go music, and a smaller indie music featuring BETTY and the late Tommy Keene, among others. What do you remember about the music in D.C. as someone who grew up there?

MARY TIMONY: That’s interesting. We kind of did a switcheroo. I’m from D.C. and I moved to Boston. (In D.C.) I learned, as a teenager, about rock shows and rock music from being involved in the punk scene, the post-hardcore scene of kids here. Those are the shows I went to in high school. Basically, the Dischord (Records) bands and stuff. I saw every single Fugazi show from when they started in ’87. Before that, whatever was happening in 1985, hardcore shows by Swiz and Soulside and Kingface and I loved Ignition. Other than that, I would go see bluegrass out in Virginia and I loved go-go. I would go to see (go-go bands) Rare Essence and Trouble Funk. I was very into that stuff; that was really exciting. I think I liked go-go the most out of all of it, actually [laughs]. I would go to DC Space and 9:30 (Club), mostly for local (acts). I don’t think I ever saw BETTY, but I was a teenager then.

BLADE: Was the active music scene in Boston in the early 1990s part of the appeal for you when it came to relocating to Boston to attend Boston University?

TIMONY: The reason why I went there was because I wanted to go to a music program that was in a big university, in case I didn’t wanna study music the whole time, which is exactly what happened. I studied classical guitar for a year and then I didn’t really like the program much, so I transferred to study English. I found out about the (Boston) music scene from friends. We went to The Middle East (nightclub) and TT’s (T.T. The Bear’s nightclub). Then after college, I ended up living right down the street from The Middle East and I was there constantly.

BLADE: Good old Central Square! As a performer playing in bands including Autoclave, Helium, and Ex Hex, and as a solo artist with her own band, it’s not unreasonable to say that Mary, you are someone who plays well with others. 

TIMONY: [Big laugh.]

BLADE: What makes you such a good team player?

TIMONY: I didn’t know I was [laughs]. I’ve gone back and forth between doing solo stuff and being in bands. Mostly, I’ve done projects where I’ve written a bunch of songs and I’m trying to…I haven’t done a ton of collaborative stuff really. Ex Hex was fun because it was more collaborative. Wild Flag, the same thing, totally 100% collaborative in every way. But Helium was really my thing, but I got some great people that totally influenced it. I’ve always been doing my own thing but tried to find really good people. Music really is about connection. It’s never as good if it’s only one person’s vision. Usually, if it’s good it’s good because of the connection between the musicians. Music is a social art form, I think.

BLADE: “Untame The Tiger” is the title of your new album. In 1999, Joni Mitchell titled her album “Taming The Tiger.” Are you, in any way, making a nod to Joni?

TIMONY: A little bit because I am a huge fan. I have been since I was 18. But, it sort of came to me because I have a song called that on the record and I’m sure that probably came from ripping off Joni Mitchell. Then I just thought that’s a cool name for a record. Then I thought, “Oh, shit!” [Laughs] It’s already been taken! Then I thought about it and then I forgot about it. Then I thought about it again and finally, I was like, “It’s OK. It’s a little bit different.” And I love her!

BLADE: I’m currently reading Ann Powers’ book “Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell,” which comes out in June.

TIMONY: Oh, I’m definitely going to have to read.

BLADE: Yes, please add that to your reading list. “Untame The Tiger” is your first new solo studio album in 15 years. Are there things you write and sing about on your solo records that might be out of place on an album you would record with another one of your musical outfits?

TIMONY: Yes. That’s why this ended up being a solo record. I guess it was because of the tuning of my guitar. They were more or less finished songs. I wanted the songs to sound kind of acoustic. I also wanted to play with a bunch of musicians who I really love. All those things just made it seem like a solo record. If I’m writing for a band, like Ex Hex, which is basically the other band that I do right now, they’re not finished. I bring them in (to the band members) with that band in mind.

BLADE: I love the lush instrumental section on “Thirds” and the psychedelic sounds of “Looking For The Sun” and “The Guest.” Were there things you were listening to while writing the songs for “Untame The Tiger” that were inspiring to you?

TIMONY: I was listening to a lot of music, a ton of stuff. I don’t ever try to purposely emulate anything very often, but I can’t help it. I’d rather be influenced by stuff without really thinking about it too consciously. I always have loved listening to The Left Banke’s instrumentation and The Moody Blues’ string parts. Most of the string parts come from trying to emulate The Moody Blues [laughs] or The Left Banke. I’m obsessed with The Left Banke.

BLADE: “Walk Away Renée,” right?

TIMONY: Yes. This guy, Michael Brown, was such a genius. He wrote so much stuff as a teenager. His dad was a string arranger. Anyway, I love those string parts. I was listening to this prog-rock band The Strawbs and this early (Ronnie) Dio band Elf. (The Flying) Burrito Brothers and The Byrds, too. I love Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. Richard Thompson and I was really obsessed with Gerry Rafferty’s early solo record called “Can I Have My Money Back?” I love that record. I was listening to it a ton when I was arranging the songs.

BLADE: Why was the song “Dominoes” selected as the first single from “Untame The Tiger?”

TIMONY: I don’t know. I let other people tell me [laughs]. I really hate sequencing records and I hate choosing singles. I’m just too close to it. I can’t tell what people are going to like or not. A lot of times, the ones that I like are not the ones that other people like. I asked (the people at) the label and they suggested that. I think it’s more poppy sounding. Dave Fridmann mixed that one and “Don’t Disappear” and he’s a genius mixer. and these mixers are always very pleasing and accessible sounding. I think that has something to do with it, too.

BLADE: Earlier, we talked about your long history of playing music with others, which reminded me of your guest spot singing “All Dressed Up In Dreams,” written by gay singer/songwriter Stephin Merritt for his band The 6ths’ “Wasps’ Nest” album. 

TIMONY: He’s such a genius!

BLADE: How did that come about?

TIMONY: When I moved to Boston, for a year I lived with Claudia (Gonson of Merritt’s band The Magnetic Fields), who is his drummer. I lived in a group house in Cambridge. I was friends with Claudia, and Stephin lived a few blocks away. She told me he was making this record with guest singers they wanted to go over and sing on it. I went over there one day and he taught me the song and I sang on it.  I think he’s one of the best songwriters of the last 50 years or whatever.

BLADE: I completely agree. As someone who has collaborated with Stephin, are you aware of an LGBTQ+ following for your own music?

TIMONY: I don’t know. I think maybe a little bit. I’d love that. I love everybody who can connect with it, because all I’m trying to do is connect with people.

Mary Timony (Photo by Chris Grady)
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Sherry Vine is turning 60 — and she’s not quitting anytime soon

Legendary drag queen coming to D.C. for new show, ‘Smoke and Mirrors’

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Sherry Vine performs in D.C. on March 9. (Photo courtesy of Sherry Vine)

There are many things Sherry Vine is proud of. Throughout her 33-year-long career, the drag queen has accomplished so much — she’s released music, launched her own variety show and toured across the United States and Europe. 

But what she loves the most about her career is making people laugh. 

This calling to be a comedy queen started before her formal drag career. In high school, she remembers taking part in the musicals, and Vine would find joy in making people laugh by wittily changing song lyrics. 

“Then it just evolved into doing that as the act,” Vine said in an interview with the Blade. 

From the beginning of her career, she’s made singing live parodies a central part of her performance as a drag queen. And for her 60th birthday, she knew she wanted to put on an extravaganza. 

Vine is coming to the Woolly Mammoth on March 9 while on tour for her new show “Smoke and Mirrors,” performed and written by her. It’ll include new parodies, from Bruce Springsteen to ABBA. The D.C.-based drag queen Tara Hoot will be a special guest at the show. 

There’s a lot that led up to this milestone year for Vine. It all started with developing her character more than 30 years ago. 

Developing Sherry Vine

Vine describes her persona as a down-on-her-luck showgirl from Las Vegas with a heart of gold. 

She was always obsessed with stars like Joey Heatherton and Stella Stevens. Not to suggest those stars are down-on-their-luck showgirls, Vine said, but she wanted to evoke a sex kitten mentality. Her character eventually morphed into what it is today from these inspirations. 

But at first, Vine said she thought she had to look funny to be funny. 

“I didn’t care about the makeup. I didn’t wear big breasts. I just thought I had to look like a clown,” Vine said. 

When she moved to New York City in 1992, she was surrounded by queens who balanced being funny and gorgeous simultaneously. That was eye-opening for her, she said. 

Now, she relishes surprising people, she said. She’s been told she looks “too pretty” to be taken for a comedy queen, but that’s OK with her. 

“I want to walk out on stage, and anyone who’s never seen me, maybe they’re like, ‘Oh, she looks good,’” Vine said. “And then I started singing about poop and penis and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s so stupid.’”

When she was starting out as a drag queen, Vine reflected that she didn’t envision doing drag as a career. She remembers not wanting to commit to it. She wanted to be a movie star, she said. 

“I kind of fought it. I loved it,” Vine said. “But I was like, I’m not doing this as a career.’”

But once she let go of fighting it, her career exploded. She got connected with RuPaul and was on two television specials in the 1990s. That support was crucial, Vine said, and helped her believe in herself more. 

“I was like, ‘Oh, OK. If this person thinks that I have something, then maybe I do,’” Vine said. 

Drag has changed — a lot 

(Photo courtesy of Sherry Vine)

The drag scene has changed drastically. Vine credits a lot of this transformation to “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” 

“When we started doing drag 30 years ago, no one in their right mind would have been like, ‘I’m going to do drag so I can make a lot of money and be famous,’” Vine said. 

Before RuPaul’s iconic single “Supermodel (You Better Work),” one of the only examples of drag the average consumer saw was “Mrs. Doubtfire,” Vine said.  

“You had to have a passion for it,” Vine said. “You had to have a calling.”

When Vine started, drag was a fringe art form that had an audience of mostly gay men. 

Nowadays, it’s mainstream. Drag is enjoyed by a much wider audience, and is more of a way to become famous. When Vine was coming up in the industry, there were few ways to get on TV and in films as a drag queen, short of playing a character that was murdered on “Law & Order,” she said. 

But even though drag has evolved and grown in popularity, Vine’s advice to drag queens has stayed the same over the years. 

“Don’t try to do something because you think someone else is doing it successfully,” Vine said. “Find what you do, and then exploit and explore that.”

Looking back, looking ahead 

Out of her multi-decade run as a drag queen, Vine said she’s most proud of the longevity of her career. There are a few people who have been in it as long as she has — Lady Bunny and Miss Coco Peru, for example. Few others have made it as long as Vine, she said.  

She stresses that she can’t take credit for creating things, but she takes pride in being one of the first drag queens to go viral on YouTube in the 2000s. Her “Bad Romance” parody, released in 2009, racked up more than 6 million views over the years. 

In the next few years, she’s looking into doing more television and film projects. Her latest show, “The Sherry Vine Variety Show,” just wrapped filming its third season. Creating this show is fulfilling a childhood dream of hers, she said. It’s an homage to “The Carol Burnett Show,” which Vine grew up watching. 

Whether it’s performing on camera or onstage, Vine doesn’t see herself quitting anytime soon. 

“I love performing and drag as much now as I did 33 years ago,” Vine said. “So I don’t see ever stopping.”

To get details on how to buy tickets to “Smoke and Mirrors,” visit woollymammoth.net/productions/sherry-vine.

(Image courtesy of Sherry Vine)
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Girls Rock! DC empowers young people through music, social justice education

Organization founded in October 2007

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Youth leaders of Girls Rock DC! (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Girls Rock! DC, an organization operating at the intersection of art and activism, is dedicated to empowering young people through music and social justice education. 

Since its founding in October 2007; Girls Rock! DC has been creating a supportive, inclusive and equitable space that centers around girls and nonbinary youth, with a special emphasis on uplifting Black and Brown youth. At the core of Girls Rock! DC’s mission is a unique approach to music education, viewing it through a social justice and equity lens. 

“It’s a place where people can come explore their interest in music in a safe environment, figure out their own voice, and have a platform to say it,” Board Vice Chair Nicole Savage said.

This approach allows D.C.’s young people to build a sense of community and explore their passion for social change through after-school programs, workshops and camps.

The organization’s roots trace back to the first rock camp for girls in August 2001 in Portland, Ore. Similar camps have emerged worldwide since then, forming the International Girls Rock Camp Alliance. Girls Rock! DC is a member of this alliance, contributing to the larger community’s growth and advocacy for inclusivity in the music industry.

Girls Rock! DC’s annual programs now serve more than 100 young people and 20 adults, offering after-school programs and camps. Participants receive instruction on the electric guitar, the electric bass, keyboards, drum kits and other instruments or on a microphone and form bands to write and perform their own original songs. Beyond music, the program includes workshops on underrepresented histories in the music industry, community injustice issues and empowerment topics that include running for office and body positivity.

“I’ve been playing shows in the D.C. music scene for about six years, and I feel like Girls Rock! DC is the perfect amalgamation of everything that I stand for,” said Outreach Associate Lily Mónico. “So many music spaces are male dominated and I think there is a need for queer femme youth in music.”

Lily Mónico (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is evident not only in its leadership but also in the way it creates a safe space for queer and nonbinary individuals. Language is a crucial component, and Girls Rock! DC ensures that both campers and volunteers embrace inclusivity. 

“It is a very open and creative space, where there’s no judgment,” Zadyn Higgins, one of the youth leaders, emphasized. “It is the first time for a lot of us, to be in a space where we’re truly able to be ourselves.”

In creating a safe environment, Girls Rock! DC implements practices that include name tags with preferred names and pronouns, along with pronoun banners that help kids understand and respect diverse identities. 

“It’s really cool to watch these kids understand and just immediately get it,” said Higgins. 

Zadyn Higgins (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Girls Rock! DC is also more than a music education organization; it’s a community where individuals can embark on a transformative journey that extends beyond their initial participation as campers. Many start their Girls Rock! DC experience as enthusiastic campers, learning to play instruments, forming bands and expressing their creativity in a supportive environment. The organization’s impact, however, doesn’t stop there. This inspiration leads them to volunteer and intern within the organization. 

The unique progression from camper to volunteer or intern, and eventually to a full-fledged role within the organization, exemplifies Girls Rock! DC as a place where growth is not confined to a single week of camp but extends into an ongoing, impactful journey. It’s a testament to the organization’s commitment to nurturing talent, empowering individuals and fostering a lifelong connection with the values for which Girls Rock! DC stands.

One of the highlights of Girls Rock! DC is its summer camp, where kids between 8-18 learn to play instruments, form bands, write songs and perform in just one week. Higgins shared a poignant moment from a showcase,

“To see them go from, like, crying a little bit about how scared they were to going out on the stage and performing their little hearts out was so sweet,” said Higgins.

(Photo courtesy of Frankie Amitrano of Girls Rock! D.C.)

Nzali Mwanza-Shannon, another youth leader, agreed that the camp is the highlight of the program. 

“The summer camp, I’ve met so many friends, and it’s always kind of scary coming up to the end, but after we get to perform and everything, I’m so grateful that I’ve gotten the opportunity to perform and meet new people and be so creative and do it all in a week,” said Mwanza-Shannon.

Forty-three young people who showcased their original songs and DJ sets at D.C.’s legendary 9:30 Club attended the first Girls Rock! DC camp in 2007. They performed to a crowd of 700 enthusiastic fans. The organization since then has grown exponentially, with each passing year bringing more energy, vibrancy and fun to the camp experience.

Since the pandemic, however, the organization has struggled financially, experiencing a funding shortage as well as reduced growth in attracting new members. 

Augusta Smith, who is a youth leader and a member of the band Petrichor, expressed concern about the potential impact on the unique and friendly environment that Girls Rock! DC provides. 

“We’ve kind of been really slow and barely making enough money. And this year, we’re having a funding shortage,” said Smith. 

The impact of Girls Rock! DC extends beyond musical skills, fostering leadership, self-expression and a passion for social change through creative collaboration and community power-building. Mwanza-Shannon hopes to be a part of Girls Rock! DC for a long time, 

“I want to keep on meeting new people,” said Mwanza-Shannon. “I want to keep on being able to perform at these different places and have different experiences.”

(Photo courtesy of Frankie Amitrano of Girls Rock! DC)
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