Professor Kyra Gaunt, ethnomusicologist from New York University, brings to life the street games that black girls play in a celebration of their creativity and in recognition of the contribution these games, chants, and cheers bring to African American musical identity and popular culture. The seven chapters of this book took this reader, on the other side of the world, on a journey involving a revelation of what it means to be black and female, by capturing aspects of ethnic identity through the medium of the games black girls play.
The first two chapters examine girls’ games as a means of exploring race, gender, and body, and how “rhythmic sensibilities are developed and sharpened as part of play, not separate from it” (29). The dialogue between these games and popular culture has existed for generations and Gaunt’s thesis is that rather than be defined as part of traditional folklore, their place as part of contemporary and popular culture should be recognized. This is examined in more detail in Chapters Three and Four, with ample evidence provided of the links between girls’ games and the lyrics of male hip-hop artists. These games play a vital, though often unrecognized, part in the formation of a black musical identity. Aspects of these games are not confined to the streets of urban America, but are globally transmitted through aural, musical, and visual media. Examples of rhymes that are familiar world wide, including “Miss Mary Mac” and “Miss Lucy had a baby,” are discussed. Both these rhymes are universal and feature currently in New Zealand school playgrounds and are familiar to children around the world.
Gaunt examines in detail the use girls make of their bodies as technology in three main areas, namely handclapping, cheers, and double-dutch jump rope. The complexity of the body movements, including finger snapping, hand clapping, thigh slapping, and foot stomping, are revealed. This medium presents complex representations of power, race, and gender through bodily movements. Kinetic orality, as referred to by Gaunt, is the “conjunction of orality and embodied language and meaning in black musical discourse” (62). Gaunt expresses in Chapter Three the concern that black girls’ games have long been overlooked as an ethnographic resource, especially in terms of black musical studies and in comparison to popular musical culture. The possible reasons considered are that they involve children, they are contemporary, and they involve female participants’ engagement in the “non serious.”
Chapter Four traces this oral kinetic intertextuality back to the 1950s. The central question asked in this chapter is why girls take on the roles of consumers rather than producers in the African American musical world. Why are they seen to take the back seat, when there is a strong dialectical relationship of power and performance between males and females in musical contexts, especially in the hip-hop scene? Why is it that male hip-hop artists borrow freely from black girls’ games, whereas female artists seem reluctant to do so? This borrowing in hip-hop terms is known as sampling. This brings to mind for this reviewer the “triviality barrier” [1] often discussed by folklorist Brian Sutton-Smith in relation to children’s folklore.
The remaining chapters explore the musical culture and experiences of African American females through the engaging use of interviews, personal observations, and participation. Women describe the part that games played in their lives, both in the past and in the present. They describe social-musical behavior, traditions of performance, and dancing into identities.
In Chapter Seven, Gaunt describes the history and move of double-dutch rope jumping from an urban street game to a world wide competitive sport. The connections with the aim of combating juvenile delinquency are revealed and the losses and gains in this transition are exposed. Gaunt’s enthusiasm in joining in a session with the Double Dutch Divas is captivating and lively and reinforces her belief that these experiences can give women a sense of freedom and mature spirit of playfulness that can lead to empowerment in their lives and further reinforces the message to women not to give up on the games of childhood. Her conclusion is that the Double Dutch Divas are “a testament to the power of social practices learned during childhood, which are refined and taken to another level by adults” (179).
The Games Black Girls Play is of interest to a wide variety of academics, including ethnomusicologists and folklorists, as well as a more general audience. It is written in an accessible style and the inclusion of personal musical and cultural experiences and histories of a variety of women, including the author, adds to its appeal. The infectious playfulness of the topic and Gaunt’s own personal style and passion shine through for this reviewer. The call to acknowledge the intertextuality between the street games of black girls and popular musical culture is a persistent theme in this book, along with the “need for a gendered analysis of black music that considers the racial as well as gendered significance of embodied interactions in everyday musical life” (179). Gaunt brings a reality to the understanding of girls’ games as oral-kinetic play and their significance and contribution in the formation of musical style, behavior, and social identity.
Gaunt concludes with a call to expand “black musical studies to include gender and embodiment in its historical and cultural analysis of musical sounds, behaviors and concepts” (187). The importance of considering new modes of inquiry and the training of scholars to interpret them is also vital. She recognizes that this area of study is ever-changing, and opportunities for continued scholarship abound. Suggested avenues include changes in transmission and performance in girls’ games across both different regions and times, and further studies concerning “social, sexual and phenomenological interactions between African American women and men in musical settings” (187).
[1] Sutton-Smith, Brian. 1970. “Psychology of Childlore: The Triviality Barrier.” Western Folkore 29/1:1–8.
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[Review length: 973 words • Review posted on October 3, 2006]