Girls Rock St. Pete. (Photo by Sandrasonic Creative Photography)<\/p>\n
The Good Page features positive LGBTQ+ news in Central Florida and Tampa Bay, uplifting and inspiring stories highlighting locals in our community. In this issue we shine a spotlight on Girls Rock St. Pete, a nonprofit that empowers women, girls and gender-expansive folx through music and more.<\/p>\n
The name is a misnomer. It\u2019s neither just girls nor rock. It\u2019s a place where young people, especially LGBTQ+ youth and women can finally exhale. Founded in 2016, Girls Rock St. Pete is a lifeline disguised as a music program.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic is the Trojan horse to get kids to come together, learn how to collaborate, how to love themselves, how to love each other,\u201d Executive Director Jesse Miller explains. \u201cIt\u2019s safe to radically step out of their comfort zones to explore and even redefine themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
For kids who spend much of their lives bracing for judgment, the chance to breathe, create and be themselves is transformative. It\u2019s a place where identity isn\u2019t something to defend, it\u2019s something to celebrate.
Girls Rock St. Pete is a space that allows campers to explore who they are. The goal isn\u2019t just to teach music; it\u2019s to build a world where every young person feels worthy of taking up space.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you intentionally make safe spaces for kids, they open up,\u201d Miller says. \u201cWe brought in licensed therapists to provide this built-in support system so that kids could explore themselves and be expressive in all of the ways, not just about music.\u201d<\/p>\n
That commitment shapes everything: respecting pronouns, discussing LGBTQ+ issues and ensuring representation. Miller says \u201cprobably over 70%\u201d of the organizations leadership is queer or gender expansive, explaining \u201cwe\u2019re really here to amplify their voices and hold a space for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The transformations during Power Week, its flagship summer camp, are often dramatic. Some campers arrive unsure of who they are allowed to be and leave knowing exactly who they are becoming.<\/p>\n
Founder Rachael Sibilia recalls one camper in particular, Aud, who participated in 2016 and eventually returned as a mentor. \u201cWatching them grow into themselves and really lean into who they were as an individual was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other transformations happen in days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are kids that show up on Monday and they are so shy, they can\u2019t even say their name. And then by Saturday, they\u2019re up on stage, rocking out to 1,000 people as if they do it every day,\u201d Miller notes.<\/p>\n
Volunteers help set the tone. Sibilia says they\u2019re tasked with being \u201cthe person that they needed when they were younger,\u201d modeling imperfection, silliness and resilience. \u201cOur campers get to see firsthand that being perfect is not real and it\u2019s okay to make mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Power Week serves 60 young people each summer and culminates in a massive concert at Jannus Live. The monthly Youth Open Mic draws about 100 attendees, and school outreach helps connect with youth who need the program most.<\/p>\n
Campers meet their bandmates on Monday, pick up instruments they\u2019ve often never touched, write an original song in five days and perform it live on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason the model works is because you have this insanely wild and almost seemingly unachievable goal that you are all working on together,\u201d Miller explains.<\/p>\n
Ladies Rock, another offering returning for the third year Feb. 12-15, grew from parents and volunteers wishing they\u2019d had something like Girls Rock when they were young. It offers adults the chance to rediscover the creativity and courage they never had permission to explore as kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur oldest camper was 76. She was on drums and she was really good,\u201d Sibilia says. Read more about this year\u2019s event below:<\/p>\n
What they hope women take away is simple. \u201cThey don\u2019t have to be perfect to be perfect,\u201d Sibilia says. \u201cThey can try anything, they can do anything, and they don\u2019t have to be perfect to be good or to have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
The founders want the community to show up for these women with the same passion the campers show each other. They promise audiences \u201cwill be inspired \u2026 It really is this little revolution with teeth and we\u2019re community built.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sibilia adds, \u201cEven just attending an event of ours \u2026 is a revolutionary act. You are showing up for other people, for other marginalized folks and being a safe person for them and really helping to amplify what they have to say \u2026 That is showing someone else that they matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Until everywhere is safe and equitable, Girls Rock St. Pete will keep pushing forward, offering not just instruments but acceptance. Learn more at GirlsRockStPete.org.<\/p>\n
Interested in being featured in The Good Page? Email Editor-in-Chief Ryan Williams-Jent at Ryan@WatermarkOutNews.com in Tampa Bay or Central Florida Bureau Chief Bellanee Plaza at Bellanee@WatermarkOutNews.com in Central Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Girls Rock St. Pete. (Photo by Sandrasonic Creative Photography) The Good Page features positive LGBTQ+ news in Central…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[72848,73944,73945,73946,202,204,203,199,201,200,73947],"class_list":["post-153419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-girls-rock-st-pete","tag-jesse-miller","tag-ladies-rock","tag-rachael-sibilia","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-the-good-page"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}