 Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Joy. Thank you, Shias, for having me today. From 9 to 5, I work at a local nonprofit. From 5 to 9, I like to write about hip-hop and Asian-American artists. And this piece in particular explores an artist named Rolee. Are you here? There you are. So I'm going to be reading an excerpt from a short essay about his album called Native Immigrant and the ways that it explores San Francisco and gentrification. Clinging on to every scene of piece by piece and wild style, Rolee found a freedom in black books, paint pens, and bottomless stacks of postal stickers, otherwise material tools for the intention of leaving a genuine mark in this world through art. By the time Rolee and I became friends as teenagers, he was already inseparable from his Sony Discmen, wrapping along to every word of Naz's ilmatic, carrying a thick booklet of CDs in his backpack. At this time in the early 2000s, the rise of MP3s and burn CDs meant that people could start customizing their playlists. And Rolee was hungry for all kinds of music. Because Rolee had an unconventional experience as youth, his knowledge and connection to the fabric of San Francisco stems from his time spent in different neighborhoods, Soma, Chinatown, Sunset. His album, Native Immigrant, is a testament to the development of Rolee's journey as a growing San Francisco Filipino-American MC and artist. Native Immigrant stands out as a body of work that situates itself in the larger context of diaspora, taking a personal step towards adopting a critical outlook of the rapid changes in his hometown of San Francisco and the impacts on his identity as he continued to learn of his own roots in Filipino-American history and culture. Native Immigrant as a concept and oxymoron digs into the complexities of immigration and transnational definitions of home, as well as the now rare claim of being born and raised San Franciscan, experiencing gentrification. The album frequently dives into Rolee's memories, connected to his own Filipino-American identity, citing his mother's journey to the US and acknowledging an ongoing eradication of culture and assimilation in America. With accompanying sounds of the coolantong, Rolee sums up his personal relationship to the Philippines, building a bridge between home and homeland, belonging, and return. Thank you.