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Founded in 2013 by Charlie Davis, SkatePal is a non-profit organisation that uses skateboarding as a tool to provide children and young people with greater access to cultural, educational and sporting opportunities. Literally translated as ‘movement is a blessing’, Haraka Baraka is commonly used to describe the importance of play and activity for one’s well-being. The book is the result of a pro-bono collaboration between SkatePal and Pentagram partner Samar Maakaroun. It intersperses local Arabic phrases, proverbs, idioms and slang with photography and custom typography to form an illustrated, joyful introduction to the Arabic language. To formulate the book’s overarching narrative, SkatePal reached out to its growing community of friends, family and followers with a questionnaire, asking them to share their favourite Arabic phrases and explain their personal resonance. The answers were transcribed in both Arabic and English. Each person answered the Q&A differently, and Samar and team embraced these inconsistencies. Dividing the book in two horizontally—with the Arabic text at the top of the page and the English at the bottom—they positioned the same questions in the same place throughout, leaving blank spaces where questions were left unanswered, or using these spaces as an opportunity to bring in other visual elements. The phrases demonstrate an economy of words that is so unique to Arabic. Entire universes and narratives exist within a sentence; some have meanings that change with time, representing the here and now or times past; context is everything. Ultimately, language is a conduit for culture, uncovering the attitudes, values and traditions that shape the lives of its native speakers.
