“Girls Rock! DC” fosters a supportive, inclusive, and equitable space that centers girls and non-binary youth, especially Black and Brown youth. Their unique approach to music education — through a social justice and equity lens — allows DC’s young folks to build community and explore their passion for social change through after-school programs, workshops, and camps. \--East Coast Offense (or ‘ECO’ for short) is a 4-piece grunge-gaze / alt-rock band that formed in VA in late 2019. Pulling inspiration from the likes of Wolf Alice, Nirvana, Radiohead, and Slowdive, the band creates catchy, hard-hitting songs about love, loss, and the frustrations of life today. With a massive sound and vulnerable lyrics, ECO puts on a show that will leave you wondering what will come next. ECO has rocked the stages of various venues, such as Pearl St. Warehouse (DC), Songbyrd (DC), Jammin Java (VA), and Rockwood Music Hall (NYC). The band released their debut EP “Everything is Nothing” on March 22nd, 2024. \--Modest Goddess is a genre-bending rock band from Washington, D.C. that blends elements of folk, funk, and alternative rock to yield songs that are emotionally resonant and eminently groove-able. Taking an intuitive and spontaneous approach to songwriting, the band’s catalog flows effortlessly from dreamy, melancholic ballads to high-energy head-bangers to quippy indie rock tunes. \--Petrichor is a DC youth band studying punk, alt, indie rock, and grunge by covering the greats, and drawing from those styles to write their growing catalogue of original songs. \--Natalie E. Illum is a poet, disability activist and singer living in Washington DC. She is the recipient of 6 Poetry Fellowship Grants from the DC Arts Commission and a founding board member of mothertongue, an LGBTQA+ open mic that lasted 15 years. She competed on the National Poetry Slam circuit and was the 2013 Beltway Grand Slam Champion. Natalie has performed at the Nuyorican, the Paramount and The Kennedy Center, and other physical and virtual venues across the US. Her work has appeared in over 40 publications, and on NPR’s Snap Judgement. Natalie is also a singer-songwriter of the band All Her Muses, whose first album, Not speaking in metaphor, was released in May 2022. She loves whiskey, giraffes and house plants too much. Presented by Songbyrd. This is an all ages event