Photo courtesy of Lets Get Loud MKE
2025 Girls Rock Milwaukee Camp session
As an incubator of creating opportunities for girls, women, non-binary and trans youth and adults interested in becoming musicians, Girls Rock MKE, champions the powers of music and collaboration to inspire systemic change. Founded in 2013 by Valeri Lucks and Ashley Smith, the community-driven organization facilitates camps throughout the year where participants learn about things like the music industry and being in a band as well as basic songwriting skills. In 2027, Girls Rock MKE will be officially renamed Let’s Get Loud MKE in accordance with its inclusive values.
Executive director Mary Joy Hickey states, “Our organization’s mission is centered on empowering underrepresented folks through music education and performance, voices that are often left out, silenced or not centered. To me, Let's Get Loud speaks to both the personal mindset transformation that our programs foster in developing confidence and personal leadership, as well as the visceral, tactile experience of getting loud through playing music. Our new name embodies the notion of taking up space, of using your voice, and of doing so from within a supportive and empowering community.”
The organization engaged its community over the last year about a non-gendered name change, gathering perspectives from participants, volunteers, alumni, parents and caregivers, community partners and other Girls Rock camps by way of surveys, focus groups and data analysis. Feedback recognized that the name did not accurately reflect all whom they serve. Hickey says, “The bottom line is that we want all underrepresented gender identities to never question whether they belong in our program spaces.”
Shout Out
Photo by Kat Schleicher
Girls Rock MKE - 2025 Session
A Girls Rock MKE session (2025)
Drawing upon the Most Significant Change method as well as the ADKAR model, the organization successfully narrowed down to its winning choice, Let’s Get Loud MKE. 2026 will serve as a bridge year to slowly introduce the new name before it officially goes into effect in 2027. “Shout out to all the folks on our board name change committee who drove this initiative forward in partnership with community voices and helped make meaning of it all,” Hickey notes. The Girls Rock website has a FAQs page with further information.
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Hannah Pardee, president of the board of directors, has volunteered with the organization in some capacity since its founding. “We have always worked for inclusion rather than exclusion,” she explains. “Let’s Get Loud MKE reflects our collective learning and growth around gender as an organization and society. We all deserve to be heard, and one way to do that is to get loud!”
2025 was a significant year for Girls Rock MKE, having been Hickey's first full year as Executive Director as well as the ten-year anniversary for Ladies Rock Camp, of which two sessions were hosted for the first time. The organization also welcomed new community partners and debuted collaborative programs like the Jam House series at Arts @ Large, Notes for Notes at Running Rebels, and A Rebel Sound workshop series with The New State, the last being partially funded by the Wisconsin Arts Board and National Endowment for the Arts.
“This central theme of relationship building and mutual aid with mission-aligned partnerships would be what I consider huge milestones of success,” Hickey affirms about 2025. “I was also able to make my first part-time staff hire this year and we just wrapped up a three-year strategic planning process that will chart us forward.”
“I am so proud of all that Mary Joy Hickey has accomplished,” Pardee adds. “With her leadership, we’ve been able to cross a number of things off our long to-do list - some of which had been on there for literal years! Our programming throughout 2025 highlighted her rockstar partnership-building skills, and I can't wait for everyone to see what she has in store for 2026.”
In fact, 2026 will pilot more new programs, starting with the inaugural Get Loud Dance Party at Cactus Club on January 15. Annual fundraising event The Dinner Party: Sound to Table returns to Honeypie Cafe on February 12, with a $1,000 table sponsorship still available that includes six VIP tickets. Registration is currently open for the first Ladies Rock Camp session in March, plus registration for both Girls Rock Camp sessions opens February 2.
For updates, sign up for the Girls Rock MKE newsletter or visit their website. To get involved, donate or apply to volunteer.
