Taking Rock Camp out into the World

Dear Fierce & Phenomenal Rock Camp Community,

It is with a happy-sad heart that I am announcing my departure from the Rain City Rock Camp staff. The opportunity to work and serve with such exceptional and passionate co-workers, and amongst a community of enormously caring and committed youth and adults has been life-giving, and quite frankly life-changing in the best way possible. I will miss being surrounded by beautiful, artistic, and tenacious social-justice warriors on the daily! But, the complete infiltration of Rock Camp culture and ethic into every aspect of my life is a gift that I feel fortunate to be able to take with me, and hopefully, spread to more people and places in this world!

From my first time volunteering at Ladies Rock Camp in 2011, I knew that RCRC was a very special organization. Whether in the joyous energy of cartwheels by a camp director welcoming a group of wide-eyed womxn to the “camp way” OR in the thunderous declaration of “WE ARE THE BAND” by hundreds of youth, volunteers, family and friends, Rain City Rock Camp exemplifies extraordinary in every way. Over these past six years, the community has grown in so many ways. We have cultivated a collective mindset to make these amazing opportunities accessible (instructionally, financially and geographically) for MORE girls, womxn and gender non-conforming/non-binary individuals by:

• Working together to create highly relevant curriculum and leadership guides;
• Implementing the sliding scale tuition format and launching community sponsorship programs, and;
• Partnering with locations in the South Sound to amplify our mission.

We have activated and nurtured youth bands that have captivated venue and festival stages, as well as adult “fledglings” to embrace their inner rock stars, so ferociously that they are filling Teaching Artist roles just a few years later. And, in this past year, as we have actually seen threats to our communities rise; we have held our ground, raised our voices, marched, wrote letters, wrote songs, phoned, resisted and shown up for each other AND for our larger community.

As of December, I will be taking up the Managing Director role at Northwest Folklife. I am so excited to continue to create spaces where our communities’ most marginalized voices have a platform to remind us all of our deep cultural roots and of the brilliance that thriving diversity brings to our society. I will also be thrilled to volunteer for, advocate for, donate to and keep expanding community with Rain City Rock Camp. Wherever the future finds me, it will be feminist, fierce and fabulous.

Thank you so much for the love, support and community that has TRANSFORMED and EMPOWERED me to be able to take these next steps in my own journey. And as always, ROCK ON!

With all my heart,

Reese