Caring Causes: Girls Write Nashville

Girls Write Nashville, a 501(c)3 community organization and the recent recipient of a $50,000 grant from the USA TODAY Network/The Gannett Foundation’s A Community Thrives, was featured on the Sunday edition of NBC’s Today show on July 14th. 

 

The nonprofit, formed in 2017 by artists Georgia English and Jen Starsinic, is a songwriting and production community for girls ages 7 to 17 that seeks to empower expression through mentorship, songwriting, and music production. In 2018, GWN launched as an official youth-serving organization, with a mission to use songwriting as a catalyst for empowering young female voices in the community. 

 

Designed as a coaching scenario for girls who show they have a passion for communicating through music, GWN believes it’s important to eliminate as many barriers to participation as possible. Committed to a culture of inclusivity, there is no cost to participants, and most of the students who audition are admitted to the program. Girls are paired with adult female songwriting mentors to provide a creative and non-patronizing environment, and there is a peer-to-peer component which co-founder English refers to as a “youth-designed music scene for themselves.” The program culminates in a recording session at world-class recording studios like The Sound Emporium and Studio NPL, and participation in a proper album release show.

 

“In Nashville, with this huge boom going on and all the musicians moving to the city in this new wave, it became clear to us as educators and musicians that the community’s children should be benefiting from this boom,” English told The Tennesseean recently.  “Music education has become a luxury…when music is part of the vibrancy of our town, and there shouldn’t be walls preventing kids from being a part of that.”

 

The program has received much local support from area media including The Nashville Scene, WXNA, WSM, WMOT, MTSU Sidelines, NPR’s Ann Powers, and more, and has garnered national attention from outlets like American Songwriter, Wide Open Country, and even Airbnb. Being featured on NBC’s Today will bring widespread awareness to the GWN mission, and will enable the program to serve even more young music-makers in 2020.