 Hello everyone. Hello, welcome to SAPL Mabuhay. My name is Joseph and I'm a Youth Librarian for San Francisco Public Library. I'm glad you are here with us to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Month with the People's Poet Tony Robles and the most talented illustrator Carl Angel. This May, we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islanders everywhere with our program series AAPI Month. Check out San Francisco Public Library's webpage to see our upcoming events, books by Asian American and Pacific Islander authors and illustrators, exciting booklets, artists, chef, and much more. We would also like to thank the friends of SAPL for their continued support of library programs. Before we begin, we would like to take a moment to acknowledge that as we stand here in San Francisco, California, we are on the incedent land of the Ramatush and Lonely Peoples who continue to live, work, thrive, and play here today. So, we would like to stand in solidarity with our Asian American community in condemning racism, an expression of hate, discrimination, and xenophobia of any kind. Tony Robles, the People's Poet, is an award-winning author and a social justice activist. He will read his book La Casse and the Matabaca Hotel, a celebration of young people's role in the fight for social justice. La Casse fights for housing rights as his friends and family are forced out of their homes. La Casse is a beautiful name that means strong in Tagalog. Tony Robles is the author of Cold Don't Live Here No More, a letter to San Francisco, fingerprints of a hunger strike, La Casse and the Manila Town Fish, and La Casse and the Matabaca Hotel. Carl Angel is a Filipino-American artist who has produced some of the most beautiful illustrations for children's literature, including my favorite Willy Wins, La Casse and the Manila Town Fish, and La Casse and the Matabaca Hotel. I am very starched struck that I get to introduce my favorite writer and artist who have defined and informed my identity as a Filipino-American and as an artist. Without further ado, let's give one welcome to Tony Robles, who will read his book La Casse and the Matabaca Hotel. Carl Angel will follow to showcase his creative process to illustrate memorable characters and powerful imagery of social activism for this book. Hi, my name is Tony Robles. I am a Filipino-American author coming at you from western North Carolina. I am originally from San Francisco. I am the author of this book. It's called La Casse and the Matabaca Hotel. I am very proud of this book because I was involved in housing advocacy for a long time. I wanted to portray a child as a community organizer, a child with consciousness, a child with power, a child with respect, and this is what I tried to portray in the book La Casse and the Matabaca Hotel. And beginning, we begin the story. One fine day, La Casse took a walk. Cars zoomed by. The sky was the color of mangoes. Suddenly, La Casse heard a sound. A crowd was gathered around a man holding two sticks. His two sticks hit six buckets. The man sang. My name is Tika Boom. I played the buckets to pay for my room. The roof was leaking in my hotel room and the rain hit my buckets. Tika Boom, Tika Boom. People tossed money into Tika Boom's buckets. Thank you for the music, Mr. Boom said La Casse. He gave a penny and went on his way. La Casse walked on until suddenly he heard another noise. Tap, tap, tap. A crowd of people was gathered around a man, tap dancing, faster and faster. Smoke rose from his shoes and sparks flew from his heels. I am firefoot, said the man. I tap for ascent so I can pay my rent. There are mice in my hotel room. Don't want to step on them so my feet better move fast. Firefoot took off his shoe and passed it around. La Casse placed a penny into the smoking shoe and walked on down the street. Soon, La Casse came upon a strange looking man. He sat alone. Fast asleep and snoring. Hi, said La Casse. Who are you? The man woke suddenly and almost fell from his chair. My name is Fernando, the karaoke king. Give me a dollar and I will sing. La Casse searched his pockets but all he found were two adobo peanuts and his lucky nickel. Fernando frowned. Is that all you have? You are like a bird, little boy. Cheap, cheap, cheap. It'll take more than that for me to sing. And with that, the karaoke king turned and walked away towards the Maki Baka Hotel. La Casse decided to follow him. In the lobby of the Maki Baka Hotel, La Casse looked around. He recognized the people inside. He saw the owner of the Philippine grocery store and the man who cut hair at the barber shop. He saw the man who swept the street and the woman who made popcorn at the movie theater. Excuse me. Do you know the karaoke king? La Casse asked one of the manongs sitting in the lobby. The karaoke king lives upstairs. The man said pointing to a flight of squeaky stairs. Upstairs, La Casse came to an open door. He looked inside the small room. Fernando was leaning over the sink, dyeing his hair. A pot of rice boiled wildly on the stove. Fernando looked up from the sink. Oh, it is the adobo peanut boy. Are you hungry? Do you want a plate of fish and rice? Have some. Eat now. Thank you, said La Casse. Can you teach me to sing karaoke? He asked. Sure, said Fernando. Come back tomorrow. Maybe you can be a karaoke king, too. The next day, La Casse ran through the rain to the Makibaka Hotel. The lobby was crowded, even though water dripped from the ceiling. A sign on the wall read, karaoke party today. Are you going to sing? Firefoot asked La Casse. Suddenly, Fernando appeared from behind. The stars on his jumpsuit sparkled. The karaoke king approached the microphone as the music started. For you, I will sing a song of lab. He crooned. But before he could begin, a voice boomed loud. What are you doing? It was Peachy, the building manager. La Casse looked up at her and said, we're having a karaoke party. Don't you want to sing? Peachy frowned. Her face looked like a tomato. No singing. No parties in the lobby. Karaoke time is over. She snatched the karaoke machine and clomped up the stairs. Clomp, plop, plop, plop, plop. Why is she in such a bad mood? asked La Casse. Because the landlord is selling the building and we have 30 days to leave, Tick-a-Boom said as he began to cry into his buckets. Firefoot stomped his feet. The karaoke king covered his face with his cape. The party was most definitely over. A week later, La Casse sat on the steps of the Maki Baka Hotel. People had begun to pack, and some were leaving. Soon a man approached the steps. His suit was crisp and his shoes shined like stars. La Casse squinted up at him. Do you live here? La Casse asked. Does your mother live here? The man laughed. No, no, no. My mother does not live here. The man frowned up at the Maki Baka Hotel. I am the landlord. This building belongs to me. My friends live here and they don't want to leave. Won't you let them stay? Please? asked La Casse. They will find other places to live. The man said impatiently. La Casse thought about Firefoot, Tick-a-Boom, and the karaoke king. He suddenly had an idea. Here, Mr. Landlord, this is my lucky nickel, La Casse said, pulling his lucky nickel from his pocket and handing it to the man. Let's flip for it. Heads, my friends can stay. Tails, they have to leave. The man's eyes open wide. This is not a game, little boy, said the man. He put La Casse's lucky nickel in his pocket and turned to go. La Casse walked upstairs and knocked on Fernando's open door. His new friends were packing their suitcases. Anger suddenly jumped inside La Casse. I don't want you to leave. We'll go to the landlord's house tomorrow and tell him you want to stay. Fernando sighed. La Casse, this has happened before. We tried to fight, but we had to move anyway. La Casse's eyes flashed, but this is your home. We have to try. Tick-a-Boom and Firefoot and Fernando stopped packing. You're right, they said. Let's do it. The following morning, La Casse, Tick-a-Boom, and Firefoot painted signs in Fernando's little room. The signs read, we won't go and no evictions, and Maki Baka, Huag Matakot, which means struggle. Don't be afraid. You know, La Casse said as he painted, maybe if the landlord lets you stay, he can fix the leaks in the ceiling and get rid of the mice. Firefoot and Tick-a-Boom nodded, and maybe we can have karaoke parties in the lobby again, said Fernando. Downstairs, everyone at the hotel was ready to march. They crammed the lobby. They held their signs. Suddenly, Piichi appeared at the top of the stairs with the karaoke machine. I'm sorry I was so mean the other day. I don't want to have to leave either. Here, bring this to the march, she said, as she handed it to La Casse. The people cheered. Fernando looked at La Casse. I was afraid before, but not now. We are together, no matter what happens. In this way, we have already won. Time to go to the landlord's house, cried La Casse. Tick-a-Boom hit his buckets as everybody marched into the street. They chanted and stomped their feet. It was like a party. People stopped and stared and then joined them as they marched. Fernando and La Casse sang into the karaoke machine. They call us the karaoke kings. We believe in what we sing. We won't leave. We won't go. Maki baka huagma takot. Maki baka huagma takot. Meanwhile, the landlord sat at his desk, nervously tossing La Casse's lucky nickel in the air. Each time the nickel dropped into his hand, it landed the same way. Heads, heads, heads. The landlord heard the people chanting as they gathered in front of his house. No, no, we won't go. The landlord looked out the window at the crowd outside. He remembered what La Casse had said to him. Heads, they can stay. Tails, they have to move. And he tossed La Casse's lucky nickel into the air. It fell into his palm, heads up. And that's the end of our story. Again, La Casse and the Maki Baka Hotel. It is published by Lee and Low Publishers, multicultural publishers based in New York. And this story is to show that children have the power to know right from wrong. They have the power to make decisions. They have power to know right from wrong and to be involved with their community and to respect their community and to respect their elders. And the book was A Labor of Love. The illustrator was Carl Angel, who is a brilliant artist who has done artwork illustrations for many other children's books. So thank you very much for letting me read this story and to share it with you. And again, if you're interested in getting the book, you can go to Lee and Low, that's L-E-E and L-O-W, Lee and Low. East Wind Books of Berkeley also carries it, as well as Archipelago Filipino books, located on 6th in Mission in San Francisco. Again, the collages, the buildings and stuff with the members of the community, Tony and I felt was a real important aspect of the book, since it happened, honoring them through the stories and just sort of always remembering where you come from. Tony's story is about community and heart and how we treat one another and how important it is to always remain a community throughout all kinds of change. And to just, you know, to honor those bonds that you have within each other, because it's so easy to forget as one gets older, or as one is brought to you, who came before you, who paved that way for you. And so Tony is able to communicate that in this book, which isn't really my tactic. It's always fun and so emblematic of his voice. He's really, he's really good at that. So my job, what's huge, is to, you know, rise up that level of storytelling visually. I'll just start, this is actually just the fun part of it. Well, not the whole process is fun, but what's really a little more restrained and is the first part of it when you're just trying to come up with ideas. That's the discovery phase of it is, for me, one of the more enjoyable parts of the process. And so in Machibac Hotel, there are a number of characters that Lacoste meets. One is Fernando the Karaoke King. But, you know, you just start kind of messing around and trying to figure what, how best to embody the words of the author. And this one is, originally this was the first draft of Firefly. I don't know why, I think I had it, I was like, which isn't what he is or was in the book, but it's one of those things where ideas are just popping out of your head and just trying to take it where it goes. And this is a tick-a-boom. And this was kind of based on a character, on an actual character that Tony had known in downtown, I think it was Union Square. And for a few of these, Tony had provided me with some pictures. I think for Firefly, he had given me some references to that. And I used that, ultimately. But I think I'd come up with my renditions before you gave me those photos. So once he gave me that, I tried to incorporate whatever ideas the author has in mind, but just to honor whatever vision the author has. This is a collaboration, so it's not so much me just taking the words and completely excluding the writer out of the process. I was putting food, whatever vision the writer has. But on my end, I had to interpret some ideas for the landlord. I knew it was pretty much out of actual volubiles, but just the pattern and it kind of had to be mysterious. It had to have a face, which gave it more of a sinister look. And also, you know, I thought I would add to Tony's words to the fiction characters when he was just giving me this script. Thank you, Tony and Carl for the powerful message of unity, love, and laughter. I just love the story of La Casse and the progress from La Casse in the Militant Fish to La Casse as a social justice hero. We are very grateful to Tony Robes in Carl Angel, SF State, Association of Chinese Teachers, Square and Circle Club for today's program, and thank you students, teachers, readers, and listeners for tuning in with us to celebrate Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Month. Remember, you can find Tony Robes' powerful writing and Carl Angel's beautiful artwork through SFPL to go. You can find out Asian Americans who have fought for social justice in judicial system with apiabiography.sfsu.edu. If you love today's program, check out our calendar for more api programs in our virtual library. And that's it. That's it for today, folks. Take good care of yourself and stay safe, and we hope to see you back at the SFPL virtual library soon. Bye, friends.