Skateboarder S O F L O

The World of Graffiti: Street Art & Skate Culture

Street Art &Skate CultureStreet Art and Skate Culture – an evolving organ in the body of our communityx

The skate culture has been with us since the 1970s. That’s nearly half a centu-ry. On the other hand, street art has been around for almost a century – ninety-sev-en years. And, over the years, this vital jig-saw piece has grown into several different forms, but let’s start from the beginning.Now, when you hear skate culture, the first thing that may pop in your mind is skate-boarding. You’re right, but there’s more to it. For the past three decades, skateboard-ing has always been deeply influenced and inspired from the art and sport of surfing. In fact, this was how skateboarding came to exist. The very concept of skateboard-ing is similar to surfing except on land.The skating methods used are also inspired by surfboard tricks on the waves, but specifically on paved concrete surfaces to entitle a smooth ride.

Furthermore, the skateboards used by any skater are styled in their own way; differ-ent designs, sizes, etc. Some skateboards even have a specific design to perform tricks and stunts like flips or backstabs. It is generally how this community is famous for as a sport.The skateboard culture is also known as punk or skate punk culture, where they have a fashion and language of their own. And with this, street art comes to play. Skate art, which is pretty much the same thing to street art, takes on a specific role in the world of skateboarders. The design used on the skateboards, for example, represent the skateboarder and their story. In “Skate Cul-ture”, a website blog that provides information, news and commentary on the culture of skate-boarding, a blog post made on April 4, 2016 called “Skate-Punk Culture as Seen in an Epic Topside” presents a picture of a skateboard de-sign and explains why it was designed like this.

Written by: Colleen Connery

“If that person designed it or chose that specific skateboard, then it should have some meaning to fit them as a person.” says Deonte Anderson, a stu-dent at South Broward high school.

The same goes for street art as well, asclarified by Daisy Perez, another student attending South Broward:“It’s like a way people can express themselves. Like how some express themselves by playing a musical instrument, some other people have art that they can show off at the side of a restaurant or in a skate park. I also believe this to well, because for skaters and their skateboards, they could design them to express their creativity as well.”

As you can see, street art and the skate culture do share a similar factor when it come to ex-pression and creativity. But it doesn’t stop there. As we continue to prove how street art plays a note-worthy role in the entirety of skate culture, we also need to explain where this is happen-ing. What communities that are occupied by skateboarders are being affects currently by to-day’s graffiti and wall art? Take a look on your maps everyone and see if you can find Amman, Jordan in Israel. There’s a very special skate park in this area; it’s called 7hills Skatepark.

Children from all around who are running as refugees from the torn-out war in Syria go here to get away from all the drama. In this specific skatepark, kids can have fun and be themselves. At first, it was a useless plot of land until it became a colorful rainbow in what seemed to be a grey and mun-dane neighborhood. Kids here learn to become professional skateboarders and each day street artists come by to add some more colors, shapes, and even drawings to the ramps and platforms of the park. The kids love it, and as said in a Newsweek article called A Day In The Life 7Hills, Am-man’s Skate Park, “Music, children, spray paint and even a puppy suddenly bring the place to life.”

“If that person designed it or chose that specific skateboard, then it should have some meaning to fit them as a person.”

1 Cover page

2 Street Art & Skate Culture

3 Street Art & Skate Culture (continued)

4 Contents Page

Acknowledgements:• My mom for driving me to the

picture sites• My teacher, Mrs. Lackey, for help-

ing me with the magazine’• Luna Izaguirre, for helping me

with the pictures• Josh, for modeling the cover• My entire family, for supporting

me throughout the magazine