February, 2008
Shame on those of you who missed the Purple Rain Affair! Yeah, some of us missed it too, but for extremely good reasons, mind you.
Well, for those of you who missed your chance, you can compensate by coming out to DJ Phatrick’s bi-weekly Devil’s Pie. This week they’re doing a Sade tribute! Join us for some bullet-proof soul.
Those of you who’ve been following Saul Williams and his new alter ego Niggy Tardust will be interested in checking out this two-part breakdown of Saul’s concept.
As a warm-up to our Cali-Missouri-Pennsylvania run next week (figure that one out, travel agents!), Dahlak is going to embark on the amazing mission of doing two shows at opposite ends of California in the same day. Here’s the itinerary:
1. 9am: Fresno State University
Black Student Outreach Conference
Satellite Student Union
DRIVE
2. 1pm: Adriel’s house in Oakland
Pick up Adriel
Where it ain’t no joke
DRIVE
3. 7:30pm: Humboldt State University
Feature at “Poetry is not a Luxury” (it obviously isn’t)
Kate Buchanan Hall
And then back home in time for our show at Berkeley the next afternoon…
Here at iLL-Literacy we haven’t quite gotten to the status of roaming the country in Escalade tour buses (on dubs). Instead we get stuck at Budget rental counters with our fingers crossed that our “economy sized” cars will get bumped up to “compact” (it’s not all glamor, baby!). With last week’s NY trip which had us on the road from 2am to 8am (ouch!) we needed some goodness pumping from our speakers to help us forget that everything that didn’t fit in the trunk was piled on our laps.
Nico put together a nice lil’ collection of dillies for the first leg.
@ The For the Record iLL-Blog
Tossed together at the Avis office at JFK airport while waiting for our cramp-ass cars.
*Remember to read the directions to the right to get rid of those annoying 30-second snippets!
Within the first 5 days of March we hit the west, midwest, and east. Convene.
Saturday March 1: Berkeley, CA
UC Berkeley API Issues Conference
12pm, MLK Jr. Student Union
FREE
View flyer
Monday March 3: St. Louis, MO
Washington University
8pm, May Auditorium
FREE
Wednesday March 5: Grantham, PA
Messiah College’s B-Sides
10pm, Larsen Student Union
FREE
Oooooh lawdy it feels good to be back in the Bay! We had a beautiful time at Ithaca, NYC, Vancouver, Tacoma, and Seattle…thanks to all the fam who came out to show some brothas and a sista love! The homie Daps1 snapped some shots at our last show, the premiere of the new Seattle Arts Kollective.
Kicked it live last night with good fam for the launch of the brand new Arts Kollective in Seattle!
On a real poetry-geek tip after the show everyone went to Sea Garden in Chinatown and scared the shit out of the workers when cats started busting out of nowhere. We promise we didn’t start it! But we had to pick it up…
UPDATE: More goodness from Sea Garden:
from:
Vancouver, Canada
Four iLL hoodlums got across the border.
Here’s the full 15-minute set we did at the GROUNDED run at Intersection of the Arts in San Francisco this past November. A more reserved audience than when we’re doing concert halls with the Hi-Lifes, but the lighting switch ups are pretty neato.
Set list:
1. Digable Plan Its Intro
2. Why I Write Race Poems
3. A Peculiar Evolution
5. Self Hatred’s Soliloquy
from:
02.17.08:
Bowery Poetry Club :: New York, NY
Featuring iLL-Literacy, New Rap Order & Conchita
On February 17, 2008 iLL-Literacy made its NYC musical debut with its band The Hi-Lifes. Backstage after the show we kicked it live with the likes of K~Swift of NRO, Taiyo Na, and Geologic of Blue Scholars.
iLL-Literacy & the Hi-Lifes: Clockwise from top left: Billy Hi-Life, Nikki Hi-Life, Rufus Hi-Life, Sammy Hi-Life, Adriel Luis, Ruby Veridiano-Ching, Nico Cary & Dahlak Brathwaite
Yes, we did get detained (some of us not for the first time) at the border, but fortunately our iLL-charm eventually earned us some northern exposure. No Canada shows quite yet, just a good amount of chillin. BUT SOON! We’ve got our eye on you…Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, besta watch out…we’ve already infiltrated….
Today iLL-Literacy joins forces with Youth Outlook and WireTap for the first official Youth Media Blog-A-Thon! Today we focus on the oh-so-exciting elections, and Adriel weighs in with An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton.
Dude, it’s 1:30 and we were supposed to check out of our rooms at 12. Nico’s in the lobby stalling while everyone else gets their shower on. The ECAASU show at Cornell was hotttttt fiyahhhh! Much love to everyone who came out and showed love after the show. 4 hour drive back to NYC for Sulu Series tonight. Fashiggadoe.
Sent via Geo’s iPhone that he lost and then later found, only to still be unable to receive calls on it.
