Serious Girl Power
CHANGE THE BEAT is About Celebration
Are you ready to CHANGE THE BEAT?
Tomorrow’s Girls Action Foundation benefit concert is about celebrating the power of girls and women of all ages.
Girls Action member Andrea Zoellner is a key player in the event’s organization, and is a strong believer in girl power.
“I’ve been working at Girls Action for a year now, and as a young woman myself I see the need for positive female role models as well as gender-specific approaches to empowerment,” she said. “If I didn’t have my older sisters showing me I could do great things, I would be a different person today.”
“But not all girls have access to those resources,” the Concordia Journalism student continued. “With younger girls it’s important to give them safe spaces to discuss the issues they face, like violence, self-esteem, peer pressure and media. Beyond that though, we want to empower girls to take action on issues they care about. To let them know that they can be agents of change. An incredible ripple effect is created when girls are equipped with confidence, knowledge, and mentors.”
Girls Action Foundation is a non-profit organization whose main goal is supporting girls and women in overcoming barriers and achieving their potential and dreams. The Foundation has created a mentorship program to connect young women to a network of strong, influential women in order to build their leadership skills. It’s one generation of women helping the next, and as a young woman, Zoellner realizes the importance of this project.
The CHANGE THE BEAT benefit concert features local female artists in various genres including hip-hop, electro, rock, and spoken word. Performers include Jenny Salgado, Krista Muir, Empire ISIS, Mary Hell, as well as special guest MC Dina Habib and many more.
The concert marks the end of the Girls Action Foundation’s LIGHT A SPARK campaign, a national campaign that invited successful women – businesswomen, social activists, artists and more – to contribute to empowering the next generation of young women. The inspirational women are called SPARKS, igniting a movement for change.
“When it came time to decide how we would mark the end of the campaign, we thought a benefit concert would be a great way to get amazing female musicians involved, to harness the energy of the last few pretty intense months and to invite our friends and the music lovers of Montreal to celebrate with us,” said Zoellner.
“Art has been an important part of girls programming at Girls Action Foundation since the beginning. We see it as a means of expression, discussing issues and social change,” Zoellner explained. “Our high school program at Beurling Academy in Verdun is called Art Attack and through media arts, the girls are encouraged to speak up and express their point of view. Our elementary school Girls Clubs also have a similar approach and they create awesome videos and scrapbooks.”
“Girls Action also works with girls to create zines. Our Make Some Noise zine is a toolkit packed with inspiration, skills and resources to help girls create their own media projects for social change, using the power of media arts to speak out about issues that matter to them.”
For more information on the Girls Action Foundation, or to make a donation, visit their website at http://girlsaction.ca/
June 15, 2011 / Rialto Theatre (5723 Avenue du Parc) / 7:30pm, doors at 6:30pm / Tickets 1 for $18, 2 for $25 (entrance free for 12 & under)
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