West Oakland is getting ready for an exciting weekend full of intergenerational participation and urban performances, as part of the Life is Living Festival at Defremery Park this Saturday and Sunday.

People will have a chance to taste the different flavors this community has to offer. There will be art, music, a fashion show, obstacle courses and contests with local skate shops giving away prizes. There also will be an activity to remember Oscar Grant in where the community can write their thoughts and feelings regarding the verdict of the trial Johannes Mehserle trial - the former BART officer found guilty of killing Grant in 2009.

The festival began in 2008 and has traveled through different cities in the United States. As part of the celebration, this year Town Park has organized the first Karl Watson Day to celebrate and honor Oakland’s native pro-skater. Satori Wheels, a Georgia-based team of skaters, among others have named Watson the “nicest dude in the game” and a true example to his community and friends. He currently resides in Richmond where you can find him raising his three kids, practicing at the skate plaza or promoting skateboarding as a positive viable alternative for youth and for the future of eco-skateboarding.

Life is Living is a national campaign of Youth Speaks Inc., whose goal is to establish a new model for collaboration between different under-resourced communities, green action agencies and the contemporary arts world. It is no wonder why honoring the life of Watson fits perfectly into this festival. He started skating more than 20 years ago and remembers starting his skating career at the Embarcadero in San Francisco. He continues to use his fame to instill healthy alternatives to the choices available in under-represented communities through skating. Watson has been instrumental in the development of Town Park and the Hood Games from the beginning.

“He is an amazing cat in terms of his personality, being open, skating with the kids and having kind words to say," said event organizer Keith Williams, also known to his high school art students as K-Dub. "It makes sense to celebrate a local person within this sport, whose a good person and that is why we celebrate Karl. It is important for our young people who are inspired by this activity to have role models like that.”

K-Dub, along with a variety of Oakland artists and skaters, created the Hood Games as a spin off from the X-Games in Los Angeles in 2005.

“I saw the diversity in the crowd because it was in L.A., but I didn’t see it in the athletes at that particular time,” Williams said.

The goal was to bring into Oakland everything that the X-Games were not and on Sunday, K-Dub is proud to bring the 26th event of this kind back into the city. From 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., Oakland will be able to experience the magic of the Hood Games and observe this pro-skater ambassador doing the tricks that gave him international recognition.

This event serves multiple purposes: it celebrates Watson’s inspiring accomplishments and dedication and serves as a healthy space for youth empowerment in where they know they can create something and be involved in the entire process. Skateboarding is an old sport that has not declined in popularity and is currently being incorporated by schools into their physical education class.

It is not just about the sport; the whole point according to K-Dub, is for the “kids not to feel not excluded from the industry, but a part of it, by giving everyone the opportunity to get involved in not only skating, but in the creation of decks and obstacle courses.”

K-Dub’s goal is to establish a forum in which pro-skaters are invited into the community instead of having the kids go out of their community to see them or run into a skateboarding contest.

Defremery Park is located at 1651 Adeline St. in West Oakland. For more information regarding the Hood Games and Karl Watson Day, visit hoodgamesskate.com.