As the Executive Director of YEAH!, Mariela’s all about breaking down even more barriers. She’s helping to make sure that music and arts education is accessible to everyone, no matter their background. She wants YEAH! to be a place where kids aren’t just learning to play instruments or sing songs—they’re learning about themselves, appreciating each other, and navigating the world with creativity and life skills that multiply from participating in the artistic process.

Since 2006, Nashville nonprofit YEAH! has been amplifying the voices of local youth through music education and exploration — especially those who might not be given the opportunity otherwise. - by BRIANNA GOEBEL

Take a look at a few Youth Empowerment through Arts and Humanities (YEAH!) programming moments from 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022! - video by CLAIRE STEELE

2020 teaser trailer for Oasis Center's Arts and Activism class in partnership with YEAH!.

Summer camp directors around the mid-state adjusted their programs because of COVID-19, including the leaders of FreqOut Virtual Music Camp. - by HANNAH MCDONALD

Spotify-produced vid features a conversation with Maren Morris and YEAH! youth about making music, plus snippets of performances - by STEPHEN TRAGESER

Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison, 21, went to Summer Girls Rock Camp in Tennessee, starting at age 10. “I loved it,” says Allison, who branched out from guitar there, learning to play drums and arrange songs, covering the White Stripes and Coldplay. “My first year, I was in bands with 17-year-olds. And then after that, I started slowly getting friends to come to the camp with me.” The girls-only aspect helped, she adds: “It was a really good energy throughout the whole camp. It didn’t make you have to feel nervous about being a girl in a class and people thinking you were gonna suck. It was a really good, nurturing environment.” - by BRIAN HIATT

In a time of movements like #MeToo and March For Our Lives, women and young people all over America are speaking up to make real change in our nation. YEAH! (Youth Empowerment through Arts and Humanities), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Nashville, TN, is continuing to make those voices stronger using a tool so abundant in Nashville that it has become synonymous with the city’s name: music. - by AMANDA ANDREWS

The Southern Girls Rock Camp celebrated 15 years of fostering young women’s creativity — and some world-class rock ’n’ roll — at MTSU this month.