Amman’s budding skate culture was the hot topic during school meeting yesterday when 7Hills co-founder Mohammed Zakaria stopped by King’s Academy for an enlightening Q&A with the community.

Firyal Bawab ’19 and Leen Al-Zu’bi ’17 led the interactive discussion, which touched on how the community-built skate park came to be – with the help of local skaters and volunteers from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Belgium and the Czech Republic – and the importance of recreating abandoned public spaces across Amman to benefit the local community.

“Before anyone uses the park they need to do something to give back first, like clean it up,” said Zakaria, a 12-year skating veteran and founder of the Amman-based company Philadelphia Skateboards. “It helps kids have ownership over the park and they get excited about holding competitions and other events.”

Surrounded by a vibrant array of graffiti in the heart of Jabal Lweibdeh, 7Hills is also a hub for local artists and creative minds alike, who get together and brainstorm potential ideas for innovative projects across the kingdom.

Zakaria was brought to King’s as part of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts’s Jisr initiative, which is aimed at connecting students with local and global practicing artistic communities.