Kyra Gaunt: How the jump rope got its rhythm
Kyra Gaunt: Hoe het springtouw zijn ritme kreeg
A member of the inaugural TED Fellows class, Dr. Kyra Gaunt is an ethnomusicologist, singer-songwriter, and a social media researcher on faculty at University at Albany, SUNY. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
TICK-tat, TICK-tat, TICK-tat.
TICK-tat, TICK-tat, TICK-tat.
the Jump Rope]
a clothesline, twine.
waslijn of bindgaren.
in elkaar gedraaid.
is that it has a certain weight,
dat het een bepaald gewicht heeft
that kind of whip sound.
een soort zweepgeluid maakt.
of the jump rope is.
oorspronkelijk vandaan komt.
that it began in ancient Egypt, Phoenicia,
uit Egypte of Fenicië zou komen
to North America with Dutch settlers.
met Nederlandse kolonisten.
when women's clothes became more fitted
toen vrouwenkleding wat strakker werd
achter hun rokken bleef hangen.
wouldn't catch the ropes.
om hun pupillen te trainen.
to train their wards to jump rope.
waren geweest in het vooroorlogse Zuiden
in the antebellum South
Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens,
Bronx, Brooklyn en Queens,
lots of girls playing with ropes.
touwtjespringen op de stoep.
and turn them as a single rope together,
tegen elkaar in ronddraaien.
them in like an eggbeater on each other.
was like a steady timeline --
and rhythms and chants.
en liedjes aan toe kan voegen.
waar we iets in te brengen hadden,
to contribute to something
than the neighborhood.
a powerful symbol of culture and identity
symbool van cultuur en identiteit
mochten meisjes niet sporten.
basketbal en voetbal,
basketball and football,
de regels in de speeltuin.
niet mee mochten doen.
that boys weren't a part of that.
waar meisjes de baas waren.
omdat zij het ritme hoorden.
so many hip-hop artists
van vele hiphopritmes.
in black girls' game songs.
hoorden van spelende zwarte meisjes.
act like you know how to flip,
french fries, ice cold, thick shake,
heeft een Grammy award gewonnen
became a Grammy Award-winning single
your street in a Range Rover ... "
your street in a Range Rover ... "
down down the roller coaster,
down down the roller coaster,
in een zwarte stadswijk kende die muziek.
in any black urban community
te laten blijven hangen in je hoofd,
helped maintain these songs
and the gestures that go along with it,
en de bewegingen die erbij hoorden,
to what I call "kinetic orality" --
'kinetische oraliteit' --
passed down over generations.
op generatie wordt doorgegeven
is the thing that helps carry it.
helpt het touw daarbij.
to carry memory through.
om herinneringen aan op te hangen.
for all different kinds of things.
gebruiken voor allerlei soorten dingen.
because people need to move.
omdat mensen moeten bewegen.
can make the most creative uses.
het meest de creativiteit stimuleren.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Kyra Gaunt - EthnomusicologistA member of the inaugural TED Fellows class, Dr. Kyra Gaunt is an ethnomusicologist, singer-songwriter, and a social media researcher on faculty at University at Albany, SUNY.
Why you should listen
Kyra Gaunt's book, The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop, published by NYU Press, won of the 2007 Alan Merriam Book Prize awarded by The Society for Ethnomusicology, which contributed to the emergence of black girlhood studies and hip-hop feminism. It also inspired a work by fellow TED Fellow Camille A. Brown, BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, which was nominated for a 2016 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production.
Gaunt's articles have appeared in Musical Quarterly, The Journal for Popular Music Studies and Parcours anthropologiques, and she has contributed chapters to I Was Born to Use Mics: Listening to Nas’ Illmatic and The Hip-hop & Obama Reader, among other publications.
Gaunt's scholarship has been funded by The Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities and is a nationally- and internationally-recognized speaker. She also is a certified expert witness in federal and state cases on the unintended consequences of social media. She also continues to perform and record as a classically-trained, jazz vocalist and R&B singer-songwriter. Her original compositions are available on the CD Be the True Revolution available on iTunes and CDBaby.
Kyra Gaunt | Speaker | TED.com