Just in time for xmas, here's another bumper 2hr edition banger of an episode with a theme we know you're gonna buzz off - home decor! 

In this episode we talk about how live laugh love is a class issue, we introduce a new segment 'is it posh or is it not,' we discuss how pot animals have been gentrified, how it's an Instagram trend to make it look like your house is half finished, what appliances make you nouveau riche, decorative plates, what working class people have on their fridge and SO MUCH MORE!

Episode 17: Live, Laugh, Love (All Things Home Decor)

“Why do folks have to go outside of Southeast LA to access music, to access self-confidence, to be in an environment that’s so positive? That’s what really inspired me to bring it home,” said the do-it-yourself entrepreneur, who goes simply by the name Marin, in a recent interview. Marin came up in South Gate and earned her punk rock chops drumming in an all women of color band called Bruise Violet. She credits her participation in the punk scene with teaching her how to make things happen with whatever resources are available.

After five years of sound engineering for the downtown Los Angeles rock camp, Marin kick-started her own camp, Chicas Rockeras SELA in 2015 with some like-minded Southeast Angelenos. Marin and her fellow camp organizers came of age in the punk rock house party scene of South Central and Southeast LA, and they apply this DIY approach to Chicas Rockeras in Huntington Park.

For both the campers and the volunteers, the idea behind rock camp has never been about professionalism in music. With a goal of encouraging self-esteem and self-empowerment in young girls through a medium of music, the first non-profit girl rock camp sprouted in Portland, Oregon, in 2001. At 55 and counting, these day camps have spread all over the world, connected by the Girls Rock Camp Alliance. In just one week, girls aged 8-17 learn an instrument, form a band, write an original song and perform it at a concert in front of their families, friends and rock camp community. Most adult musicians don’t work this quickly. Campers also learn life skills and community-building through workshops, skits, and guest speakers and performers.

“Girls are often made to feel small, to not be loud, to not take up space,” said Marin of the transformative nature of rock camp, “so imagine being ten, coming into camp, and being told ‘Yes you can’ over and over again, being celebrated for your mistakes, given a high-five, or even being encouraged to yell into a mic. Some girls, they have a breakdown, but they also have a breakthrough.”

The infectious energy of rock camp also has the power to change the lives of the adult volunteers, many of whom confess to learning a lot about themselves in the process. More often than not, they say they wish they’d had something encouraging and validating like rock camp growing up.

“If I had someone showing me or explaining to me what it is to be a person of color, what it is to be gender queer,” recalls Marin of her teen years, “I would’ve been more comfortable in my skin. Instead, it took me so long to come out, because I didn’t have these conversations with anybody.”

People want and need to see positive images of themselves mirrored back in order to imagine and activate their own potential. Chicas Rockeras works hard to actualize this in Southeast Los Angeles. Every aspect of this camp is tailored to both confronting and embracing the realities of girls growing up in Southeast LA. From the bilingual theme song and instruction to the separation of the campers into age-divided groups called the “Bidi Bidis” and the “Bom Boms,” this rock camp provides an accessible, affordable (100% sliding scale), safe space for girls to explore and express their identities.

“What does our neighborhood look like? Are we embarrassed of where we live? If so, why?” were questions Marin posed during a workshop she led in the first year of camp, to which some campers offered up, “I pick cans with my grandpa” or “I sell tamales with my mom.” “And so did I,” asserted Marin, “Having that conversation, by the end, they were crying, and they were just like, ‘I love where I’m from.’”

The beauty is that these young girls can take the energy and pride generated from camp home to their own lives and communities. As Chicas Rockeras SELA gears up for their second year, cofounder Marin declares her ultimate goal:

“We’re trying to take over the world one rock camp at a time!”

By ALLISON WOLFE, APRIL 26, 2016
Photo: Melissa Ramirez

CHICAS ROCKERAS: EMPOWERING GIRLS IN SOUTHEAST LOS ANGELES

Poor Lass is a podcast and zine about real life experiences from the mouths of legit working class people. Hosted by Em Ledger and Seleena Laverne Daye

Episode 17: Live, Laugh, Love (All Things Home Decor)

Poor Lass

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