My Adventures at The Roots Picnic

NoName Gallery
Aug 6
4 min read

by Jonene Lee

I was going to post about one year, but then I realized there were a couple years at Festival Pier, when the picnic first started and I should just probably include the whole experience, ya know?

The Roots. How did I first meet them? On 4th and South like a lot of people. They'd set up shop and just freestyle on the corner. The Black Lily was another spot where everyone went "before they were famous" in Philly. Singers, producers, artists, dancers ... we were all at The Black Lily. I was running around these Philly streets as a hip hop dancer with a camera in hand, taking photos of everything and everyone and I think naturally my world just collided with a lot of musicians.

James Poyser was the first person I started nagging about passes. I met him at a party at Larry Gold's studio in the early 2000's and he slowly became someone I could call and say "hey I heard so and so was at the studio, can I come by with my camera?" and he'd say yes. So by the time The Roots Picnic came to be ... there I was " Ooooooooooo Jaaaaaaameeeesss ... can I get a pass?"

The thing about The Roots is that they're all really nice people at heart. Like, they're genuinely REALLY good guys. Polite and respectful ... to me anyway. I'm sure other people have had different experiences with them, but I've always felt welcomed whenever I'm around them. So yeah ... I think they all kind of said "yes" to a lot of people who asked for passes, when the fact of the matter is ... a lot of us had no business being back there.

The other side of it is that a lot of people got backstage and then gave their passes to people so they could get backstage too. I remember in 2009, I think I spent more time backstage socializing that actually watching the show.

I remember taking the above photo of Yameen. I went to will call for my passes, which is always a stressful adventure. "Your tickets will be at will call J" ... ok James, thanks! Then I'd get there and "we don't have your name". WHAT THE FUCK. Why? There's never an answer but I can tell you it's THE WORST feeling. I prepared for the day, have my camera and now I can't get in. Plus, my outfit is cute!!! Uuuuuuggggggg ... ok Plan B ... who will give me a pass?

I think that was the year, Yameen did :)

I heard Mac Miller on some mixtape around 2009/2010. I LOVED the Nas "Nikes on my feet ..." sample and would play it constantly. In 2011 Nas headlined the picnic and Mac was also performing. I remember I ran up to him and said "OMG YOU SHOULD GET NAS TO SING THE HOOK WHEN YOU PERFORM NIKE ON MY FEET!!". He hadn't blown up yet, laughed and said, "I wish". It was a cool little convo we had and I'm grateful to have been able to speak to him while he was here. Here's a link I found to his performance that day:

Mac Miller 2011 Roots Picnic

Some randoms

2012 Roots Picnic Set List

De La Soul "Itzsoweezee"

2012 Okayplayer Roots Picnic Recap

Sometimes I feel like I threw my entire photography career out the window. Not that I threw it away, but whenever I look back at my photos, I sometimes get sad because my business sense had not, at all, matured. I'm confident in saying I have a great eye for photography. Most of the time I see things in pictures, but turning those pictures into a lucrative business was something I was never able to do. I could blame it on the fact that I was on a lot of drugs back then or I could just admit that I was scared. Scared of what everyone thought of me, scared that I wasn't good enough to even be there. It can be pretty intimidating being the only women photographer, with zero educational background in photography (I took one class when I was at Temple) and no clue how to use half of the functions on her camera.

But I have an eye and I'm able to use music and dark humor to bond with people ...

It's also pretty cool to see where everyone in these photos are now. Some people I'm still in contact and work with frequently. Some of them I hadn't spoken to in years, but when I opened the gallery and we found away to collaborate. It's something I really love about the Philly music scene: a lot of us stay connected in some way through some art form.

The picnic moved to The Mann which meant bigger and better. Great for the band ... sucks for the Philly social scene. I didn't attempt to get in for years and then in 2022, I forget if I asked Ahmir or James, but I was able to get a press pass ... only I was 47 at the time and soon realized that I don't like being around large crowds of people anymore. It's funny how that happens when you're actually in the crowd you don't want to be in.

I got a few shots, but I think I can also confidently say that I'm done shooting music events :)

In 2024 I texted Ahmir and asked if I could somehow have the gallery involved in the picnic and we decided on having a few murals set up so people could have a cool spot to take selfies.

I picked two of Philly's best muralists El Toro and Stacey Flygirrl.