The talented teens of this year’s Amplify Lawrence rock band camp will make their onstage debut Saturday.
At the annual weeklong camp, girls and transgender and nonbinary youth ages 12-18 can learn the basics of an instrument or vocals, form a band and perform a live show. The camp has returned to an in-person format this year, following two virtual camp summers.
The Amplify Lawrence: Camp Showcase is Saturday, July 2 at Liberty Hall, with doors to open at 6 p.m. and the show to start at 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $5 and available at this link. Kids under 5 may enter free with a paid adult. Masks are strongly encouraged.
Originally known as Girls Rock Lawrence, Amplify Lawrence has been inclusive of girls and transgender and nonbinary youth since its founding in 2015. The organization changed its name in 2020 after campers insisted the name fully match the organization’s values and purpose.
“It is a music camp, but it’s also about self-discovery. We want them to know it’s OK to be unique, it’s OK to feel different,” Katlyn Conroy, camp director, said earlier this year. “Instead of focusing on physical appearances, like how cool they look, we try to build them up with compliments about the quality of their character and talent so that they feel comfortable within themselves.”
Here’s a peek behind the curtain at this year’s camp from Instagram:
Amplify Lawrence is a member of Girls Rock Camp Alliance, a global network that supports youth-centered social justice and arts efforts. Learn more about it on its website.
If our local journalism matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Latest Lawrence news:
In KU exhibit, Kansas quilt artists piece together story of racial violence from Emmett Till to today
A pair of exhibits at the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence are inspired by the life and death of Emmett Till, which helped launch the civil rights movement. The work of area textile artists helps connect the 1955 killing to contemporary violence against Black people.
Lawrence Historic Resources Commission defers decision on markers memorializing Tiger Dowdell, Nick Rice
Nearly four years after the conversation began to memorialize two teenagers killed by Lawrence police in 1970, the Historic Resources Commission on Thursday deferred a decision on the design and language of markers that would be placed near the scenes of the killings.