Capitol Romance

From the Bride (The Proposal):

“Obi proposed during a double dinner date at Busboys & Poets – Shirlington the day before my birthday, also the location of our third date. Halfway through dinner he said something like ‘well I think you’ve waited long enough’ and got down on one knee- we’d been together for 5.5 years at the point. My best friend who was hiding around the corner filmed the whole thing! His best friend who was eating dinner with us also filmed the proposal! We’re so grateful to have that moment captured on video.”

The Making of Busboys and Poets

A Seat at the Table: The Making of Busboys and Poets

We’re proud to announce A Seat at the Table: The Making of Busboys and Poets, the new memoir from our CEO and Founder, which reveals the vision, challenges, and triumphs behind opening Busboys and Poets. Packed with misadventures, unexpected triumphs, and insights on race, business and politics, Andy Shallal’s memoir takes us on a “How I Built … Continued

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For Langston Hughes on His 123 Birthday

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

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Palestine Week 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

Why We Are Doing Palestine Week

Why We Are Doing Palestine Week

– by Andy Shallal, CEO & Founder Busboys and Poets The past few months have been traumatizing for anyone with a cell phone and access to social media. For people living in Gaza it has been unimaginably horrific seeing entire families wiped out and most of Gaza’s inhabitants displaced, starved and without shelter. 1 in … Continued

Busboys and Poets Books Review: Before the Next Bomb Drops

Busboys and Poets Books Review: Before the Next Bomb Drops

In his second poetry collection, Remi Kanazi takes the reader on a journey of violence and collective ignorance from Palestine to Ferguson to Iraq to Brooklyn. His unapologetically angry, graphic depictions of violence and fierce indictment of the ignorant among us who claim “the world is a messed-up place” but do nothing to stop it … Continued

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The Nepal Chronicles #1

March 2, 2021… For the next couple of weeks I will be blogging on Facebook about a trip that I have been planning the day I turned 65, which was about a year ago. I am heading to Everest Base Camp and hoping to celebrate my 66th there. I got the all clear from my … Continued