WEBVTT 00:00:00.206 --> 00:00:02.666 If you do it right, it should sound like: 00:00:02.690 --> 00:00:06.569 TICK-tat, TICK-tat, TICK-tat, TICK-tat, TICK-tat, TICK-tat. 00:00:06.593 --> 00:00:08.300 If you do it wrong, it sounds like: 00:00:08.324 --> 00:00:09.823 Tick-TAT, tick-TAT, tick-TAT. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:09.848 --> 00:00:12.699 [Small thing. Big idea.] NOTE Paragraph 00:00:13.574 --> 00:00:15.460 [Kyra Gaunt on the Jump Rope] NOTE Paragraph 00:00:16.321 --> 00:00:19.754 The jump rope is such a simple object. 00:00:19.918 --> 00:00:22.517 It can be made out of rope, a clothesline, twine. 00:00:22.541 --> 00:00:25.067 It has, like, a twirl on it. (Laughs) 00:00:25.091 --> 00:00:26.863 I'm not sure how to describe that. 00:00:26.887 --> 00:00:29.392 What's important is that it has a certain weight, 00:00:29.416 --> 00:00:32.793 and that they have that kind of whip sound. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:32.817 --> 00:00:36.615 It's not clear what the origin of the jump rope is. 00:00:36.639 --> 00:00:40.575 There's some evidence that it began in ancient Egypt, Phoenicia, 00:00:40.599 --> 00:00:44.671 and then it most likely traveled to North America with Dutch settlers. 00:00:44.695 --> 00:00:49.333 The rope became a big thing when women's clothes became more fitted 00:00:49.357 --> 00:00:51.635 and the pantaloon came into being. 00:00:51.659 --> 00:00:54.539 And so, girls were able to jump rope 00:00:54.563 --> 00:00:57.269 because their skirts wouldn't catch the ropes. 00:00:57.293 --> 00:01:01.173 Governesses used it to train their wards to jump rope. 00:01:01.197 --> 00:01:04.438 Even formerly enslaved African children in the antebellum South 00:01:04.462 --> 00:01:05.904 jumped rope, too. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:05.928 --> 00:01:10.539 In the 1950s, in Harlem, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, 00:01:10.563 --> 00:01:15.039 you could see on the sidewalk, lots of girls playing with ropes. 00:01:15.063 --> 00:01:18.785 Sometimes they would take two ropes and turn them as a single rope together, 00:01:18.809 --> 00:01:22.595 but you could separate them and turn them in like an eggbeater on each other. 00:01:22.619 --> 00:01:25.132 The skipping rope was like a steady timeline -- 00:01:25.156 --> 00:01:26.673 tick, tick, tick, tick -- 00:01:26.697 --> 00:01:30.759 upon which you can add rhymes and rhythms and chants. 00:01:30.783 --> 00:01:32.831 Those ropes created a space 00:01:32.855 --> 00:01:35.077 where we were able to contribute to something 00:01:35.101 --> 00:01:37.211 that was far greater than the neighborhood. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:37.602 --> 00:01:41.288 Double Dutch jump rope remains a powerful symbol of culture and identity 00:01:41.312 --> 00:01:42.465 for black women. 00:01:42.489 --> 00:01:44.807 Back from the 1950s to the 1970s, 00:01:44.831 --> 00:01:46.966 girls weren't supposed to play sports. 00:01:46.990 --> 00:01:49.791 Boys played baseball, basketball and football, 00:01:49.815 --> 00:01:51.156 and girls weren't allowed. 00:01:51.180 --> 00:01:53.704 A lot has changed, but in that era, 00:01:53.728 --> 00:01:55.569 girls would rule the playground. 00:01:55.593 --> 00:01:58.013 They'd make sure that boys weren't a part of that. 00:01:58.037 --> 00:02:00.283 It's their space, it's a girl-power space. 00:02:00.307 --> 00:02:02.403 It's where they get to shine. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:02.427 --> 00:02:03.989 But I also think it's for boys, 00:02:04.013 --> 00:02:05.489 because boys overheard those, 00:02:05.513 --> 00:02:07.957 which is why, I think, so many hip-hop artists 00:02:07.981 --> 00:02:11.277 sampled from things that they heard in black girls' game songs. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:11.301 --> 00:02:14.377 (Chanting) ... cold, thick shake, act like you know how to flip, 00:02:14.401 --> 00:02:17.402 Filet-O-Fish, Quarter Pounder, french fries, ice cold, thick shake, 00:02:17.426 --> 00:02:18.881 act like you know how to jump. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:18.905 --> 00:02:22.925 Why "Country Grammar" by Nelly became a Grammy Award-winning single 00:02:22.949 --> 00:02:25.307 was because people already knew 00:02:25.331 --> 00:02:28.806 "We're going down down baby your street in a Range Rover ... " 00:02:28.830 --> 00:02:32.243 That's the beginning of "Down down, baby, down down the roller coaster, 00:02:32.267 --> 00:02:34.696 sweet, sweet baby, I'll never let you go." 00:02:34.720 --> 00:02:37.569 All people who grew up in any black urban community 00:02:37.593 --> 00:02:39.878 would know that music. 00:02:39.902 --> 00:02:42.124 And so, it was a ready-made hit. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:42.656 --> 00:02:46.775 The Double Dutch rope playing helped maintain these songs 00:02:46.799 --> 00:02:50.800 and helped maintain the chants and the gestures that go along with it, 00:02:50.824 --> 00:02:54.831 which is very natural to what I call "kinetic orality" -- 00:02:54.855 --> 00:02:56.656 word of mouth and word of body. 00:02:57.133 --> 00:03:00.006 It's the thing that gets passed down over generations. 00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:02.961 In some ways, the rope is the thing that helps carry it. 00:03:03.696 --> 00:03:06.569 You need some object to carry memory through. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:06.943 --> 00:03:10.887 So, a jump rope, you can use it for all different kinds of things. 00:03:10.911 --> 00:03:12.466 It crosses cultures. 00:03:12.490 --> 00:03:16.495 And I think it lasted because people need to move. 00:03:16.519 --> 00:03:21.906 And I think sometimes the simplest objects can make the most creative uses.