Do you remember being a kid and spending hours playing hand games with your friends? It was a fun way to create little secret codes between you and your crew. Playing those games made you feel like you were a special club. They’re such a normal childhood rite of passage, we never think of them as an essential part of our culture, but that’s exactly what they are.
In the new ESPN 30 for 30 short, Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games—premiering Nov. 12—this staple of Black culture gets its long overdue spotlight, and The Root is proud to exclusively debut the trailer.
“In Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games, we aimed to shed light on the often overlooked, yet vibrant world of hand games and the young Black girls who play them,” co-directors Joe Brewster and Michéle Stephenson said in a statement to The Root “Through this film, we wanted to celebrate the rich cultural traditions and resilience of these girls, showing the power of community, creativity, and storytelling.”
When you’re a kid, all you know is that you’re creating a song and dance that has special meaning to you. You don’t really understand that you’re adding to the culture of the diaspora. But that’s exactly what hand games do. They may feel like an American phenomenon, but little girls in the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, South America and the Middle East all have their own hand games showcasing the stories of their culture.
This new short is just another example of why it’s so important to hear Black stories from around the world. While Black people are not a monolith, our cultures have more commonalities than differences, and it’s always uplifting to celebrate those shared experiences. And we always have time to showcase how Black girls lead the way on evolving and influencing history.
Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games premieres Sunday, Nov. 12 at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.