Bay Area Girls Rock Camp Turns 10

The Oakland nonprofit has become one of the country's most progressive Girls Rock Camp chapters by emphasizing accessibility and inclusion.

Maggie Halliday and Grace Iyer met as tweens in 2009 through Bay Area Girls Rock Camp, an organization that offers musical training in nonjudgmental, intimately collaborative settings. “I remember I tried jazz band at school and all the other drummers were boys,” said Halliday, 20. “When they found out I couldn’t read music, I was sort of sidelined. But at rock camp, mistakes are cool.” Their first camp band was called The Luminescent Vampire Bunnies. Both of them attended for years, eventually volunteering as instructors and, most recently, joining the organization’s board of directors.

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