Don’t be basic! Stay calm and get your nerd on to welcome the New Year!

Click here to get tickets

Featuring live music and performance by:

Featuring live music and performance by:
DJ Ayescold, The CooLots, Lethal Bark feat. Tom Toles, Chocolate City Burlesque

Tickets include 2 drink tickets, food, and live entertainment.  Ticket proceeds go to support Capital Area Food Area and DC Youth Slam Team.

Busboys and Poets is throwing the quirkiest new year’s bash in DC – all to benefit the Capital Area Food Bank and DC Youth Slam Team! Fight hunger and help young poets thrive as you welcome the new year with the hottest DJs, live entertainment, games, food, 2 drinks per person with additional drink specials all night – and more.

Come dressed as YOU – and if YOU is nerdy, even better!

#NerdyNYE #NerdsDoNewYears

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

HavanaAirport byJamesAlbright

Cuba! 2. Cuba – Getting there.

Follow along for the Busboys and Poets Travel Tribe’s Cultural Exchange trip to Cuba (July 6-13, 2022) By Andy Shallal (@andyshallal CEO/Founder, Busboys and Poets) We hit the tarmac at exactly 9:59. I am hopeful. Nonetheless, my hopefulness is tested. The plane circles and circles the runway. Taunting me. Finally finding a resting spot at gate … Continued

Busboys and Poets Book Interview: Mamta Jain Valderrama

Busboys and Poets Book Interview: Mamta Jain Valderrama

Busboys and Poets Books is excited to have social justice author, Mamta Jain Valderrama coming to Busboys 14th & V to discuss her debut novel, A Girl In Traffick, based on true stories of human organ trafficking. In advance of the upcoming event, bookstore supervisor Kenlynn Nelson interviewed Mamta about her writing and thoughts on … Continued

AndyShallal PeaceandStruggle

Everest Base Camp #9

Quaint is the word. I am starving. The lack of sleep and exhaustion makes me famished. To my surprise, the menu at this tea house (as in every tea house along the route I come to learn) looks like any roadside diner along I-95 South. It’s even laminated. The only thing missing was, the “hi … Continued

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5. Cuba – Ministry of Culture

We approach the towering yellow stucco building that houses the Ministry of Culture. There is a delegation waiting patiently to greet us at the sidewalk. They are standing in front of a metal gated entrance. Their inviting faces have welcome written all over. We exchange “Holas”. And handshakes. The handful of Spanish words I know … Continued