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Who the heck is Mohammed Abuhakmeh? | Mohammad Abuhakmeh (aka Mostarr) | TEDxGUST


thank you
how’s it very doing good 2013 I was
lonely I couldn’t find anybody I was the
only one that was doing this like I was
like oh my god what’s going on like I
want to meet friends in the circle so I
created something called graffiti picnic
and the first graffiti picnic what
happened was since I was always
designing for clients and everything
like that I realized I started I made a
lot of I made a huge network I made a
lot of friends and higher places so this
is the graffiti picnic this was the
first day of it it was a statue I didn’t
steal the statue actually I found it and
then I just remodeled it and then I
started come up with things called
streets very souk so streets pretty soup
is where anybody can just bring your
sketchbook and just draw and I get to
meet you and you get to meet me and then
what happens I grab you guys together
and then I’ll take you with an artist
that is amazing and I’ll put it with a
guy who’s an amateur and then what
happens is the circle that builds so the
first time it happened you started
meeting new people which is amazing
because you already started meeting
amazing people through graffiti picnic
you know and then that’s when we started
like communicating with each other and
then there was little ones I was like
don’t forget the little kids you know
let’s do events for the kids which was
actually awesome so I started working
with the kids and everything to create
something called little ones which was
also inch wave and the people that
joined were amazing we’re beyond and the
outcome was awesome this is from Street
Spray soup let’s get to this wall now
remember the first wall I showed you
guys I cannot show her face without her
permission I don’t want to get that
phone call again it was terrifying so
what happened was she calls me up and
the best part was after meeting all
these awesome artists from all the
events I call up these guys up and I was
like guys I don’t want to do this wall
by myself the lady called me up she’s so
sweet she’s like I want you to redo the
wall again and I was like thank you so
much
so I gathered my bestest friends I was
like guys let’s go do this let’s go
paint this wall and the outcome was
unbelievable until this day it is the
best-looking best standing wall in
collaboration with awesome artists till
this date and then spray hunt so I came
up with this idea one day when I was
like let me do spray hunt it was a
documentary about me driving all the way
from Kuwait to Jeddah amazing right it
sucked so bad it was so horrible it was
the worst and best idea ever because I
had to experience it which was actually
awesome but driving to Saudi to Jeddah
there’s nothing it’s 18 hours of like
Mad Max you know you have people like
random cars with 50 dogs in the back but
there’s like one guy running after it
you see random at night town I was
crying I was reading I was like every
religion I was saying it to myself
because I thought I was gonna die we ran
it was the worst but the outcome was
amazing because I got to meet street
artists in Jeddah that day and the cool
thing about it was these guys waited
till 2:00 a.m. okay for us to show up
just to say hello and then I saw the
kindness I saw how amazing these guys
were it was so amazing we have such a
amazing time and I felt like I inspired
them and they inspired me that day and I
couldn’t believe this existed in Saudi
you know and these guys were wonderful
they were like you came all the way from
Kuwait representing Kuwait I was like of
course dude we’re brothers
until this day we communicate spray box
you there’s an untouched poet of Kuwait
that nobody knows about I want to focus
on these people I want to focus on these
collaborations so I sat down with my
awesome group of writers and artists and
we started brainstorming together how
we’re gonna build the walls how are we
gonna do this how are we gonna do that
we started collaborating we built this
place together and the craziest part was
again
this was a family that was created which
was actually amazing and we still
communicate till this day about
everything about life about artwork and
the best part is our backgrounds are a
hundred percent completely different but
when we’re on that playing field we’re
all one this was a day I created an
illegal event man I got to work with my
numbers sometimes sometimes I always say
like y’all I think 50 people are gonna
show up right
I gotta start saying five thousand
people are gonna show up we need a
license for this event okay so this was
crazy so we decided to do a b-boy event
inside spray box for the opening so
again we expect to look around 200-300
people right we didn’t expect two
thousand plus people to show up to this
event we didn’t expect quate and RIE to
show up man I was all like no please
don’t document this it’s kind of legal I
don’t get the registration for this
thing but they didn’t care they were all
like redbull came onboard they started
putting out tables giving out drinks
they gave us the flooring all the
sponsors came I was like oh my god that
is insane okay the hype was insane the
whole place was shaken up and down and
then that crazy thing is you look up and
you see every building balcony has no
less than three to four people on it
watching you this is what I was about to
have a heart attack because now I was
like I’m going to again depart it no man
not there’s this I was in charge of
urban urban culture week for Red Bull so
coming up with the designs for working
with it working with the team behind it
to actually start pushing the urban
scene in Kuwait and I was so happy and I
was so proud to do that over here we
started doing workshops on this place
started working so I got my bro boo
fiddy with me giving workshops because
now it’s like what happened is we we
started something we can’t just throw it
away you know we can’t just show
ourselves because sometimes in in those
scenes you’re always gonna have dramas
you know
you always gonna have people like your
homemade your boss I was like I don’t
wanna be a boss I’m just trying to
create a place where everybody can have
fun collaborate so by finding the right
people now we’re actually mentoring and
we’re educating the youth in a spray can
is not for vandalism a spray can is
don’t know this guy is as cool but it’s
awesome now joking so I started working
some more people like my stuff so I
started doing collaborations with people
so ever here’s the collaboration there’s
an awesome collaboration that was an
amazing collaboration for Karajan that
wall because what happened is we started
looking for walls that everybody keeps
vandalizing and damaging so our job is
basically just to beautify it we just
wanted to beautify everything over here
and with the spray can nothing is all
about everybody thinks everything has to
be money-related
know did if you love what you do the
money is gonna come and it comes pouring
so fast that you have no idea what to do
with it
so you have to start giving back to the
community as much as possible
these kids that day when I got that
photograph I was like awesome I was like
oh my god if those kids can remember the
day be like remember that place I went
to that there was awesome drawings on
the wall and we met this guy and it was
really cool he was playing with us and
everything it’s worth more than a
million dollars you’re not gonna take
money back up there with you you know
you’re not gonna be like all screwed up
I’m in heaven now I have credit down no
you know you leave an experience behind
so what I started doing now I don’t want
to just focus on Kuwait because now
quake can take care of itself I have an
awesome team here I’m working with
awesome brothers and sisters that are
actually moving this thing along so I
decided to go welcome to Africa so I
went to Africa so I was part of this
program they contacted me through a map
eco so they contact me only as a graphic
rafidhi artist you know just to spray
paint walls so by going there what
happened was I started looking at the
environment that was there I love kids
I love everything to do with kids
so the thing is what happened was I
started painting all these walls but
then I felt a little bit I started
looking at the kids around me there was
like 30 40 kids and everything and and
they loved life I’m telling you these
kids were wearing tyres for shoes they
would open up a tire and use the rubber
as shoes in a string so what happened
what was and I saw them every day trying
to do their home I didn’t not doing a
homework so I painted one or two walls
but then I saw a couple of these kids
and they’re trying to do it so I picked
up the book and joke around first of all
they thought I was a wrestler okay so
they were like you do dick but like I
had to play with it you know I was like
all right cool if they’re not gonna
respect me as an artist I might as well
be a wrestler so it’s fine so the cool
thing is we started working together and
everything so every single day I was
there for like 10 days the artists were
getting irritated with me because I
wasn’t spending that much time painting
on walls because I was spending an hour
and a half to two hours a day doing
homework with 30 40 kids so I was
sitting down I was reading I was like
every single word that they did not have
a definition for I would underline and I
would give it back to that kid I’d be
like I need to you need to find out the
definition of that by tomorrow and they
would come in and it would all circulate
this amazing compound that we were on it
was a place called Google stubby and it
was amazing and then I got to meet
awesome artists I got to meet Martha
Cooper I got to meet a falcomon Donal
scuba listo so those guys started seeing
what I was doing so they were like okay
we’re gonna paint the walls but this guy
so while I was doing homework with these
kids and everything I realized I was
like man I mean in a really filthy place
this place is so dirty
okay but why why do I still feel bad
that I feel like I’m beautifying the
walls but I’m not really beautifying the
walls for them because the place is
really a mess it doesn’t make sense so I
was like why don’t I just turn this
place into an amazing art gallery by
start cleaning up this place so
while doing homework I ended up adopting
this kid his name is Madiba so what
we’re doing homework I came up with this
idea I met this one kid his name is TK
Lilly and he comes up to me and he was
hungry he didn’t ask me for money it was
just like you know it’s like dude can
you just give me food and I’m really so
being in almost like a business man I’m
not gonna do this stuff for free so I
told him I was like listen nothing’s for
free I’m gonna give you 200 grand I
expect I told him is like you know what
Trust is he’s like yeah I was like give
me a broomstick and I want all the
change back so I was like okay
25 minutes he came back with a
broomstick and everything I was like now
I want you to be my translator let’s go
walk we walked around the neighborhood
after we walked around the neighborhood
more homework after we walked around the
neighborhood
we decided I started knocking on
everybody’s door I was like hi
12 o’clock I’m gonna be outside I’m
gonna start cleaning this neighborhood
so there’s a compound full of glass and
grass and like metal pipes and all that
stuff so I’m gonna be outside
12 o’clock if you guys want to show up
knocked on every single door maybe like
50 60 doors these people I was like who
is this crazy white man right here he’s
coming over here telling me what to do I
was like yo man I just want to clean up
the street man so by doing that 12
o’clock came by
I thought maybe 5 or you know it’s like
5 10 people are gonna show up the whole
neighborhood showed up the whole
neighborhood showed up you’re talking
about man
so many people on this side so many
people on this side it was crazy it was
became a competition who can clean
faster than the other one and then what
happened was my job was just supposed to
be a graffiti artist okay so what
happened was the main guy from a Pico
Ian calls me up he’s like you know what
did you do I was like man I don’t know
and I think I got it from my mom skills
dude I just want to clean everything
house like the table and I did and what
happened was the graffiti artist started
be like okay cool because now what
happens is now you are creating a piece
of art but surrounded by trash
and these kids are gonna look at that
and then it’s not a good example so what
happened now is they started beautifying
the areas to present their artwork then
I started communicating with the
neighborhood I started going into
restaurants I’d be like yo what’s up I
can make chicken wings better than you
okay so the guy who’d be like no crazy
so we started battling in a restaurant I
started cooking in that guy’s restaurant
so I was helping him so they’re like who
is this crazy white boy who is he
I’m not white I’m cinnamon got to meet
more awesome people start working with
the communities these are awesome kids
that I work with I actually go visit
them once a year this is the other girl
Angela she is my sweetheart so I make
sure that every year I’m there just to
show my face and tell them that I love
them and I’m here to support them and it
makes a huge difference and you can see
these all these girls all straight-a
students all straight-a students because
somebody was there just to tell them hey
you’re doing a good job what is the
money we keep in our pockets it’s
nothing it’s nothing why we I just want
to go buy a Playstation game know better
someone’s life so they can better the
world creating more arts people started
giving us more walls but I can’t please
beautify the place I’m like yo dude I’m
not ten XIV go dude chill you know I’m
here to clean the place you work with me
so these guys started cleaning up their
places too and people started giving us
a place there’s more places to create
stuff for kids cuz they’re our future
and people we loved it we loved what
we’re doing we were working 16 20 hours
a day building skate parks for these
kids we’re painting on the walls but at
the end of day they were smiling and
that smile is worth a hundred times more
then I went to India so I had a driver
at my company I don’t call my driver I
call the logistics manager because I
feel listening to IRAs a little
degrading so what happened was his mom I
loved his mom his mom contacted me she
was like I want him to come to India to
visit in Chennai and chordal so I went
and again I saw a big plot of land with
all these kids running around in it all
trash so I decided I was like you know
this is a gift from mama I’m gonna paint
this wall for her so I told her I was
like you know grab the kids so I saw the
kids and all the stuff there running
around was like yo lazy ass come here I
was like you guys are gonna be working
today nobody also they were like okay
let’s do it let’s work and they were
excited so we cleaned up the place I
told my friend mala I was like mom I’ll
go get a bulldozer I’ll pay for it man
let’s clean up this mess and everything
I mean you know what the best part after
we finished we finished that wall around
like 11 o’clock at night time we used
the crappiest spray cans and all that
stuff but at the end of day there was
like over 50 kids they’re working with
me everything I even made mama spray
paint on the wall she’s like no no I
don’t plan to do it no I was like mama
come on let’s go just like okay here we
go
she didn’t stop I had to correct her
mistakes I was like it’s like I wanna go
home you know and it was amazing and a
ministry saw it and I mean just he loved
it the minister was like oh my god let’s
work on a project for 2020 to beautify
this place and it was crazy being an
Indian newspaper like I was all like yo
mama I made it to Bollywood and she’s
like that’s not Bollywood Sheryl and
this is the wall
sorry it’s pixelized but it was actually
amazing the experience behind that that
was really cool I know one of the most
amazing thing was 11 o’clock at night
time we’re sitting on the roof of her
house and we’re getting chicken pokhara
you gotta try they don’t worry I was so
fat anybody it’s delicious
but the thing is like where people from
all different neighborhoods started
coming just looking at this wall and
that experience was unbelievable it was
so awesome man it was amazing we just
wave to them you know and I think is I
don’t want to tell them that I did it I
don’t which I it’s not my thing isn’t
between me and the big guy up there you
know
to me it’s like y’all know the kids did
it I don’t know how to draw I was I got
my damn PT no no I just come up with
stuff and then Namibia the last trip I
went to was in the BBS so I did a
documentary over there with redbull
actually took me there and Gondwana
lodges and three other companies that
were amazing and my job was just to put
smiles on people’s faces because life is
all about stories stories is what makes
us live so by going there by dancing by
learning their culture by figuring the
Mohammed working with the kids I created
a family in every single country I went
to and this is my story so basically I
always believed for you to get bigger
and stronger you always need to carry
people not bury them and thank you very
much my name is Mohammed the bihac man I
hope you had fun
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]

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