About us

Your life is the story you live. We want to help you tell it.

Girls Write Nashville is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that empowers expression throughsongwriting, production, mentorship and creative community building for teenartists in Nashville, TN. We are an educational program aligned with the standards of Creative Youth Development (CYD) and Culturally ResponsiveEducation (CRE).

In a GWN Writers Guild, participants learn to write and record original music in asupportive community of peers led by a trauma-informed teaching artist over the course of a 20 week semester. Through a partnership with MNPS's Community Achieves, Guilds take place on-site at several Title I MNPS as wellas at our Metro Center facility. 

Nashville's only music program founded specifically on the value of inclusion, we actively solve for accessibility barriers believing that when we do, our student community will accurately reflect Nashville's true diversity and work to create a safe and inclusive path to cultural participation within our city's music scene. 

Founded in 2016 as a one-time community arts project funded by a Nashville Metro Arts Commission micro-grant, co-founders Jen Starsinic and Georgia English continued the program as a nonprofit after the initial participants requested it continue.

MNPS After-school Writers Guilds

age: 6th-8th grades / serving middle schools

PREREQUISITE: none.

Young writers across Davidson County participate in a weekly after-school program led by a local professional female artist. In this community-oriented environment, participants develop the tools to express themselves through song, share their work with supportive peers, learn the basics of recording, and showcase their songs to the community. Every participant will leave the program with a quality demo of a completed song.

All City Mentorship Guild

age: 8th-12th grades

PREREQUISITE: at least one year in a satellite guild

Our All-City Recording Guild pairs upper-middle and high-school girls with local female professional songwriters. The pairs meet bi-weekly from January - June. Youth writers also attend a monthly Writers’ Guild where they share their songs with each other and participate in an art scene of their own creation. The season culminates in a recording session at a professional local studio in collaboration with a professional studio band made up of women and a public album release show.

Youth Voice Column in The Contributor

The Contributor is an award-winning nonprofit bi-weekly social justice newspaper sold with dignity by our neighbors climbing out of homelessness. In November 2020, Girls Write Nashville partnered with The Contributor to amplify local youth voices by facilitating a student-created bi-lingual youth voice column. This column is open to girls, boys, and gender-nonconforming youth in middle and high school in Davidson County. It is also bi-lingual and students are welcome to write in Spanish and/or English. Thanks to a generous THRIVE grant from Metro Arts Nashville, this project will continue through May 2021.

Interested in sponsoring or writing for the column? Email Jen@GirlsWriteNashville.org

Our Impact

Our original, research-driven curriculum and values of empowerment and social equity result in great youth outcomes.

100%

improved education outcomes

100% of middle school girls in Title I (high poverty) schools who complete a season of Girls Write Nashville before applying to high school are accepted into a top-choice performing arts or academic magnet high school.

ELL

supporting english language learners

ELL students report that songwriting in Girls Write Nashville is the first time they’ve felt truly able to communicate their inner thoughts and feelings in English.

3+

accessible after school programs

In addition to our All-City programs, we run after school programs in three Title I middle schools to assure GWN is accessible to everyone who needs it. We’re proud to support our local public school system.

Get Involved

Girls Write Nashville is a community-driven, community-powered organization. Our participant re-enrollment rate is high, our volunteers tend to work with us for multiple years, and our donors tend to stick around too. Join our community today!

join

Are you a kid who loves music and wants to learn more? Our programs are accessible and engaging for experienced artists and total beginners and all are welcome. Apply to join us!