 We artists have the threshold of the Lincoln community. That's pushing up through box soil. We contemplate and we're bursting against the background of beautiful mural speaking hope. Sunflowers pushing up. This is how we grow. This is how we create. We don't hear the stories of people who live in these communities and that's part of the why, you know, the communities have a harder time finding back. So when we have these organizations that are helping create a platform for their voices and we do art like this where we're trying to sort of draw attention and we're able to work together with these communities. Richmond, both low income and low access to fresh healthy foods, a community of 89% black, Asian and Latino, whose land is ringed by refinery, super fun sites, hallways and rail yards, flanking the water but still a food desert. I'm Michelle Wapo from my grandmother and my mother's side and then I'm Navajo also known as Dena from my mother's father's side. And so within the Dena culture, there is this idea that it's actually through your holy breath that you have the ability to restore the balance on the earth and the same word for song is the same word for prayer. Hip-hop and the communities always address people's needs and what people care about whether or not we've had a platform to lift them. We've been advised to utilize what our kids are all into to help facilitate their foundations of learning, education, finding an identity, expressing and fighting back. It's just natural, my culture is hip-hop. Hip-hop music that's popular with hip-hop music, world-wide music. You don't want to reach the hearts that don't repeat, boom, boom. You know what I'm saying? Gotta take it easy with a smile. There's so much power in the word, there's so much power in a picture, so much power in dance that, you know, regular conversation may not be able to capture and really convey to someone, but if I put it in a rap, my generation, I got you. I got my generation in my hand and I'm able to teach them or hurt them. I'm able to raise them up or bring them down with what I do. For me, the importance of art and activism lies within the people taking responsibility for their own struggle and owning whatever gifts they have and merging those two. What we can do in positions where we might have other privilege is that we can amplify that work. Through music, we have the ability to not only heal seven generations in front of us, but also seven generations behind us because we are a reflection of our ancestors. And so, you know, I think for music, it's not only healing for others, it's also healing for me. Change happens when we realize that we are accountable to that situation and that, as artists, we're constantly saying, we're accountable to it as the people here up on the stage, you're accountable to it as an audience member. Once you hear the story and you're affected, that story belongs to you.