At Busboys and Poets, hippies, college students, and political activists drink pomegranate lemonade and snap their fingers as a contestant from South Africa performs a song about water for the monthly slam poetry contest. A woman closes her eyes and compares listening to jazz with having sex. A man with dreadlocks recites a piece about his grandmother. Until 1:30 AM, the crowded Langston Hughes performance lounge oozes with rhythm and rhyme as poetry contestants tackle subjects ranging from feminism to racism.
Busboys and Poets is a restaurant, bar, library, and performance lounge located on U Street, the Harlem of Washington, D.C. In fact, Duke Ellington played his first paid gig at a jazz hall on 12th and U Street. The famous Ben's Chili Bowl is just steps away from the U Street metro stop.
The Busboys and Poets performance room is named after Langston Hughes, who worked as a busboy at The Wardman Park Hotel in Northwest D.C. before he gained recognition as a poet. As the story goes, Hughes left a few sheets of verse for a diner as he was clearing dishes. The customer, who happened to be a well-known poet, told newspapers the next morning that he discovered a genius among the kitchen staff.
This Hughes-inspired room is plastered with pictures of Bob Marley, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. Three signs centered on the stage read, "Waiting, Watching, Dreaming." During poetry readings and competitions, the room is so crowded that strangers share tables and people sit two to a seat, a sign that Busboys and Poets succeeded in their mission to create "an environment where shared conversations over food and drink allow the progressive, artistic and literary communities to dialogue, educate and interact."
The Rest of the Week at a Glance:
- Went to the Korean Embassy to celebrate Chusok, the Korean Thanksgiving. There were so many people that the police came to make sure the fire safety rules were not violated.
- Visited the National Archives, the National Gallery of Art, and the Air and Space Museum, where I watched an IMAX movie on fighter pilots.
- Went to the free Arts Festival at the Kennedy Center and listened to Academy Award nominee Lila Downs. Also saw Julieta Venegas, one of my favorite Mexican artists, at a free 6 PM concert at the Kennedy Center.
3 comments:
You could write a book of these, Ms. Travel Writer extraordinaire!
I think you should be the one up on the stage getting snapped AT next time :)
I never knew you were such a good writer! It sounds as if you're living the cafe life to its fullest...
I hope you weren't afraid during the IMAX fighter pilot movie, my little aardvark.
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