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Girls Rock North Carolina is a non-profit organization based in Durham, North Carolina. As one of over a hundred Girls Rock camps around the world, Girls Rock NC seeks to engage and empower girls and transgender youth in Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill through music and a do-it-yourself ethos. In all three programs represented in this work - afterschool, summer camp, and Teen AXN League, a week-long camp reserved for ages 14-18 - participants form bands, learn instruments, attend workshops for everything from zine-making to self-defense, and craft original songs, which they later perform at a live showcase at the end of each session. Expertise is irrelevant, encouragement is tantamount, and apologies are answered with, “You rock!” In its goal to cultivate secure, creative spaces for marginalized individuals, campers are invited to attend regardless of their financial status or previous musical experience.
Beginning in January 2016 - amidst the frenzy surrounding both the passing of transphobic HB2 in GRNC’s own backyard and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign - and concluding in summer 2019, I photographed Girls Rock not only to help promote its mission of uplifting young people, but to create images that show the power of inclusion, self-expression, and getting loud.