Girls Rock Camp

Girls Rock Camp summer showcase season is back! Since 2001 in Portland, OR, Girls Rock Camps have been empowering girls and women through music creation in cities and towns across North America and Europe, with a total of 37 camps in the international GRC network, Girls Rock Camp Alliance. GRC Summer Camp is a week-long program where girls and women ages 8-18 learn a new instrument, form bands, and collaborate to create an original song performed live complete with screaming fans and camper-designed band t-shirts. This BitchTapes is a sampling of songs written and performed by campers from Girls Rock Camps across North America and Europe. Check out a camp showcase this summer at a GRC near you!

• At Clutch, Drew-Shane Daniels asks, "Why Won't TV Networks Let Black Actors Be Great?"
• African Sexualities: A Reader, a groundbreaking anthology edited by Ugandan feminist/lawyer/academic Sylvia Tamale, is out! 
• Love Thursday Night 'Lights? You can catch Kirthana blogging at MTV Remote Control now too! 
• At xo jane, s.e. smith takes on the trend of the "mental patient" Halloween costume.
• A woman with a disability writes on her perspective on Slutwalk over at the Ms. Magazine blog. 
• ...while Black Artemis feels betrayed by some members of Slutwalk. 
• Finally, Joyce at Collapse Board makes us all jealous with her super cool tour of girls' rock camps across the US. 

Tell us what you're thinkin'/readin' in the comments below!

The very first Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls took place in Portland during the summer of 2001. Since then, rock camps for girls have been popping up all over the world. This summer will mark the first Queer Rock Camp, brought to us by a group of very diligent organizers in Olympia, WA who want to make sure queer youth are given instruments and stages from which to voice themselves. Bitch caught up with two of the organizers for this year's Queer Rock Camp, Kinsey Bell and Molly Fischer. Bell and Fischer were nice enough to tell us about the motives behind Queer Rock Camp, to let us know how we can help them make this camp happen, and to fill us in on some of their favorite queer musicians.

Read the Q&A after the jump!

Boys aren't the only ones who play air guitar. Granted, I didn't pretend I was David Lee Roth, but I'm sure I shamefully mimicked those epic "Free Bird" riffs. If you're like me and still haven't grown out of the pantomime instrument routine, you're in luck.

There may be no one better to teach girls how to rock than music and culture critic Jessica Hopper. She's clocked massive amounts of hours as a tour manager, band publicist, DJ, touring bassist, Girls Rock Camp booster, and fanzine publisher. Her "music-is-my-life" credo and infectious passion for young women and feminism are evident from even a split-second glance at her work.

Now she's just released her first book, The Girls' Guide to Rocking. Heard of it yet? Perhaps you've seen the kick-ass promo. Read on for more!