The Future of Chocolate City | A 20 Year Anniversary Busboys and Poets Presentation
Date and Time
Sep 16, 2025 6:00 pm
Location
450K
450 K St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20001
Sep 16, 2025 6:00 pm
450K
In celebration of the 20 year anniversary of Busboys and Poets, Derek Musgrove is joining us on the Angela Davis stage alongside Andy Shallal for a conversation about DC’s history of race and democracy, and the future of chocolate city. Copies of Musgrove’s book Chocolate City will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Musgrove will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. CHOCOLATE CITY will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets
George Derek Musgrove teaches courses in Post-WWII United States History with an emphasis on African American politics. He is the author of Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics: How the Harassment of Black Elected Officials Shaped Post-Civil Rights America (U. of Georgia, 2012), and co-author, with Chris Myers Asch, of Chocolate City, A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital (UNC, 2017). In 2021, he released blackpowerindc.umbc.edu, a web-based map of Black Power activism in the nation’s capital between 1961 and 1998. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, National Public Radio, the New York Times and The Root. He is currently working on “We must take to the streets again”: The Black Power Resurgence in Conservative America, 1980-97, which explores the burst of black activism that rose in opposition to the urban crisis and the conservative retrenchment. He earned his Ph.D. from New York University in 2005 and lives with his wife and two sons in Washington, D.C.
Andy Shallal is an artist, social entrepreneur and founder/CEO of Busboys and Poets, a restaurant group in the Washington Metropolitan area where art, culture and politics intentionally collide over mindfully sourced food, drinks, books and event programming. With seven locations in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, Busboys and Poets has become a home for progressives, artists, creatives and intellectuals, including such notables as Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, Alice Walker, Angela Davis and the late Howard Zinn. As a leader in the sustainable food movement, Busboys has been recognized locally and nationally for its innovative, conscious cuisine. Under Shallal’s leadership, Busboys has received numerous awards including the Mayor’s Arts Award, Employer of the Year from the Employment Justice Center and the Mayor’s Environmental Award.
BOOK DETAILS
Chocolate City
A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital
By Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove
August 1, 2019 | Paperback, 624 pages, $31.95
