On February 13th, Niche to Meet You explores Double Dutch jump roping.

Double Dutch is jumping rope with two ropes instead of one. To really know Double Dutch, though, is to know a lineage of history, culture, and joy, carried by Black girls and women across generations. From Nashville to New York City, Niche to Meet You gets in the ropes to understand how Double Dutch became a cultural practice rooted in joy, play, and community—and why the girls who built it were so often left out of the official story. The episode features voices like Dr. Kyra Gaunt, ethnomusicologist and author of The Games Black Girls Play, and the Fantastic Four—Dolores Brown, De'Shone Adams, Robin Oaks, and Adrian Adams—the groundbreaking Double Dutch team that won the 1980 national championship and toured Europe in the earliest days of hip-hop, only to be written out of its mythology. Leslie watches Double Dutch in action at Nashville’s 40+ Double Dutch club, and gets coached in NYC’s Washington Square Park by coach Shakira “Kira” Lee, whose pop-up sessions turn public parks into spaces of communal joy. Then, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Gregory Pardlo reflects on watching girls jump Double Dutch as a child, and why writing about that joy still matters.

Make plans to listen on February 13!

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