It’s too easy to disparage New Mexico for its lack of youth-empowering, School of Rock-style summer camps like the one featured in Girls Rock! (read Marisa Demarco’s film review, then see it at the Guild June 6 through 12). We’ve got music programs, all right, but they’re, uh, not quite synced up with the iPod generation. Lord knows Hummingbird Music Camp would be a lot cooler if your counselors were Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney) and Beth Ditto (The Gossip). But—for now, at least—we just don’t have those kinds of resources.So in the absence of in-the-flesh mentors like Lauryn Hill, Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails is attempting to get girls to start thinking like her.Hip-hop and Girl Scouts: Believe it. Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails and NM CultureNet have partnered for a summer of hip-hop workshops in the Santa Fe and Española area. The three, five-day sessions are intended for young women entering eighth and ninth grades in the fall. The ultimate goal is to build confidence and language arts skills through the dance, poetry and performance of hip-hop. Less nobly, the experience has "A+ ‘What I Did Over Summer Vacation’ essay" written all over it.Sessions are held Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the following locations:• June 9 to 13, Hands Across Culture Teen Center (#89 La Puebla Road, Española)• June 16 to 20, the Museum of New Mexico Administration Building (725 Camino Lejo, Santa Fe)• June 23 to 27, Hands Across Culture Teen Center (Española again)The workshops are free and lunch is provided, but enrollment is limited. To register for one of the weeks, contact Amy C de Baca at (505) 343-1040, ext. 3010; e-mail acdebaca@gs-nmtrails.org; or fax 343-1050. You can also e-mail Alex Traube at alex@nmculturenet.org for more information.
Southwest Sounds
Another installment of "New Mexico Southwest Sounds," the New Mexico Music Commission-produced TV show with an ear on local musicians, is airing this weekend. Tune in to ABC affiliate KOAT-7, on Saturday, June 7, at 1 p.m. to see and hear Grammy winners Robert Mirabal and Larry Mitchell, as well as family rock band Levi and the Plateros. The episode was taped at Gathering of Nations April 25 and 26, and has a Native American theme. If you’re not in the New Mexico/Southern Colorado area at the time of the airing, clips from the series are always viewable at YouTube.com/newmexicomusic.
