ARTS FEATURE
PAINT OUTSIDE THE LINES We Rock Charlotte cultivates inclusive expression for children under attack
Pg. 6 APR 6 - APR 19, 2022 - QCNERVE.COM
BY NIKOLAI MATHER
On a cool Sunday morning, I watched a couple of middle-aged women in circle scarves and cardigans admire a newly painted wall. The women were my fellow classmates in a spray-paint workshop led by acclaimed Charlotte artist Elizabeth Palmisano. Palmisano had accepted me on short notice as an observer and participant in the class, held at We Rock Charlotte’s Rock on 22nd house in Optimist Park, and had helped me and about a dozen other novices create one long, weird final product. When the bell rang marking the end of our session, I had painted a purple skeleton stoking a giant fire, lit up by the acronym “T4T,” a reference to trans people who are attracted to other trans people. Surreal is not a word strong enough to describe the experience of these women ooh-ing and ahhing at my punk rock portrait. I was surprised that our collaborative work looked so cool, but I was shocked that these cis women were praising a skeleton with top surgery scars. But maybe I shouldn’t have been. Proceeds from the class went to We Rock Charlotte, an organization that aims to inspire young people through music, arts and social justice. Palmisano, a member of the organization’s leadership team, has long championed the arts as both a vehicle for self-exploration and a way of supporting her community. Her work in We Rock’s year-round workshop Amplify! made her an expert at getting children, teens and even adults to let loose creatively. On Feb. 28, the organization announced its full rebranding, including a name change from Girls Rock Charlotte to We Rock Charlotte. The decision, which director Kelly Finley executed with a grant from marketing agency Wray Ward, was meant to make the program more visibly inclusive to trans and gender nonconforming young people. It also served to unite We Rock with Pachyderm Music Lab, a year-round music education program for children of all genders. Krystle Baller — founder of Pachyderm, creative director of We Rock, and Palmisano’s partner — said the transition was only a matter of time.
AN ARTIST ROUNDS OUT THE EDGES DURING WE ROCK CHARLOTTE’S RECENT SPRAY-PAINT WORKSHOP. Given the general attitude toward trans youth in this era, the move is surprising. With so many pundits and politicians calling for greater defense of womenonly spaces, what drove these local artists to carry out their rebranding now in the name of allyship?
Then and now of We Rock CLT
Baller, who also attended the mural class, told me the name change was a logical next step for We Rock Charlotte. “We were just kind of waiting for the right timing,” they said. “Because when we started in 2014, the gender language wasn’t where it is now.” Even as Girls Rock, the orgization had always included transgender and gender-nonconforming kids, and had done so openly. “Don’t let all of the girl power fool you, though,” read the About section on their website. “Pachyderm is a super inclusive spot.” In recent years, however, its leadership team noticed a dramatic change in the population it served. “A growing percentage of the young people who engage with our programs self-identify as
part of the LGBTQIA+ community,” stated We Rock executive director Kelly Finley in a press release about the rebrand. As we circled up after the class and introduce dourselves, I couldn’t help but notice a bit of a generational divide within the class itself. Most of the attendees were older cis women who either fumbled through their pronouns or stated “she/her” with practiced cadence. The younger people in the group, including a couple teenagers, used all types of pronouns. “The space that the kids have created has become more genderfluid, especially in the past four years,” Baller said. We Rock Charlotte is far from the first youth organization to observe this phenomenon. Many previously girl-focused institutions, from after-school activities to women’s colleges, have started to answer the challenge of trans inclusion. Some opt to keep with a girls-only approach, be they trans or cis. Girls on the Run, for example, states that if a child identifies as a girl and her family agrees, she can participate. Girl Scouts of America champions a similar policy, but
PHOTO BY KRYSTLE BALLER
specifies that troops handle transgender and gendernonconforming youth on a case-by-case basis. What’s different about We Rock Charlotte is that all trans kids — whether boys, girls, neither or both — are welcome in the program. The Girls Rock Camp Alliance, an international coalition between rock education camps for kids, has elected to forgo a binary approach altogether. Its mission statement stipulates that camps “must center those who experience marginalization because of their gender identity and expression.” “We Rock has always been meant for girls and gender-diverse youth,” Palmisano said. “But now, our name reflects that.”
Learning through collaboration
After making our first marks with spray paint at the outset of the Sunday afternoon class, Palmisano gave the class a new challenge. “Start thinking about how to incorporate your vision with your neighbor’s,” she said. She told me later that one primary focus in her classes is to get people to share and collaborate, and
