Shirlington is a literary community!

We had a great meeting this past Saturday morning at Shirlington welcoming new members and choosing upcoming books to read & discuss.

The book club meets on the third Saturday of every month at 9am in the Robeson Room. Always open to new members! Support your local, independent bookstore and purchase your books from Busboys and Poets Books at Shirlington!

Upcoming books and meetings:

August 17, 2013

: “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz
Chapter 1 of “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn

September 21, 2013

: “The Other Wes Moore” by Wes Moore
Chapter 2 of “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn

October 19, 2013

: “What It Was” by George Pelecanos
Chapter 3 of “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn

We also have a book club at Hyattsville that meets on the last Saturday of every month at 9am in the Zinn Room.

For Langston Hughes on His 123 Birthday

Feb 1, 2024

Speech given on February 1, 2024 in Havana, Cuba In 1927 Langston Hughes walked into a Cuba amid an emerging community of artists, intellectuals, and radicals. He saw a “sunrise in a new land [– a day – in his words]sic – full of brownskin surprises, and hitherto unknown contacts in a world of color.” … Continued

Palestine Week 2024

Jan 12, 2024

January 18, 2024 – January 25, 2024 In keeping with our ongoing mission of uplifting racial and cultural connections, Busboys and Poets is hosting Palestine Week (January 18 through January 25, 2024). This week-long series of events will offer a diverse range of programming featuring Palestinian food, music, dance, poetry, discussions, and other enriching events. … Continued

Books We Recommend

Jan 1, 2014

If your New Years resolution is to read more, you may want to add these two to your list!

Busboys and Poets Books Review: Love Poems

Feb 9, 2018

In Love Poems, Nikki Giovanni gives an empowered edge to the topics of sexuality, intimacy and what it means to love. Published in 1997, the collection’s poems span thirty years of her career as a writer. We hear Giovanni through many lenses: as a young woman, as an activist striving for change, as a lover, … Continued

Ramadan and the Games

Jul 28, 2012

Olympic games callously scheduled during the holiest of months for Muslims – Ramadan

Busboys and Poets Book Review: Set the World on Fire

May 25, 2018

In this substantial entry into the history of Black radical politics, Keisha N. Blain uncovers the legion of Black women that made waves in the growing Black nationalist and Garveyite movements of the early Twentieth Century. Black nationalism, which promotes the establishment of a Black nation state as the answer to racial oppression, first gained … Continued

Art Quote of the Day

Busboys and Poets Book Club in Shirlington