Phill-Literacy! Part I

Last weekend, our homes from Cali, Ill-Literacy made a stop to Philly on their extended East Coast Tour, along with their full live band The Hi-Lifes. They arrived tired and hungry late Thursday night so I took them to eat where else, Chinatown.

From left to right, half of Dahlak's face, Ruby, Tazika (Did I spell that wrong? Sorry), and Sam aka Scoot.
I took them to David's Mai Lai Wah because they could account for a table of 10, plus they have these bomb-ass salt and pepper chicken wings which Adriel and Dahlak are tearing up (Dahlak, as you can see doesn't like getting his pic taken during eating, hence the middle finger).

And then all the Asians - Adriel, Me, Chris aka DJ Flow and Ruby - posing with our Tsingtao Beers. We were supposed to go a secret Q-Tip concert at Trocadero but by the time we were done eating dinner the longs had extebnded well beyond our waiting capability. So we went Karaoke singing around the corner at Yakatori Boy. Belwo is our squeezed elevator picture, that's Chris the bass player on the left, you know everyone else already.

Karaoke was fun, we'll just leave it at that. The Ill crew had a long day ahead of them anyway.

Here's Nico the next day at CCP, along with Michelle's poetry club students, getting them a intro worthy of an opening. See what happens when nobody wants to sit up front?

Ruby was busy holding down the merchandise table...

and gave me my very own signed and autographed copy of her book Miss Universe! Check out her intervview with me on 215, if you get a chance.

Dahlak's turn to incite the crowd, from the other side of the room. These guys make full use of their space don't they?

After their amazingly inspirational show, it's down to business - signing autographs!

Not to mention, group picture time! This is where I made them say "Phill-Literacy". Yeah so original, I know, leave me alone.

Last time Adriel was here I took his to Denise Soul Food truck at 30th Street. He was jonesing for it again, so I had to treat 'em to another trip to the tasty pink truck.

While we waited for our orders, Ruby and Tazika got down to business right there on the sidewalk. Literally.

Tazika ordered an all veggie meal, which I didn;t even know you could do - rice and beans, greens and sweet potatoes, yummy.

I ordered the fried catfish, mac and cheese and potato salad. All I can say was Hollerrrrrrrrrrr.

Nico and Adriel exchanged their plates up front. And where was the High Lifes this whole time?

getting a good ol' cheesesteak down at Campo's in Old City, of course! That's OJ the drummer in the far left, btw. See I always make sure my peeps get fed right. Anyway this is where my camera battery died. Adriel has a photo-journal of his own Philly adventures that you can see here, and Ruby put up pictures I took on her camera on her blog here. To see the conclusion of the Swarthmore Show from the balcony section, Michelle's uploading those soon.