BUSBOY AND POETS WASHINGTON DC SERIES

Poets are tired of feeling like garnish, like, fittingly, 'props' at Busboys and Poets (especially given that the restaurant's name and history belie such treatment). So what does this have to do with the Langston cutout. The arts community and (not to sound like a former Vice Presidential candidate who shall not be named) the media have embraced Shalal and embraced his restaurant to such an almost sycophantic degree that they have forgotten that it is their events, their participation, their work that makes Busboys such an interesting place, not the inverse.

BUSBOY AND POETS WASHINGTON DC SERIES

Please ask Andy Shalal to explain how much money he takes in on a '9 on the 9th' reading (in food/drinks and door fees) and then ask him how much of that money goes back to A) the poet-in-residence who developed and hosts the reading series and B) the feature poet who actually reads and is the crowd draw. And the thanks, and it isn't even about thanks, the respect that these poets who fill the Langston room with listeners and who develop popular reading series does not match their efforts and significance. poets (known regionally, nationally and internationally) who lent their energy to Busboys and validated the during those early years. He is a successful restauranteur, but the success of this particular franchise (which Busboys is becoming) is, to a degree, owed to the local D.C. Theft is, of course, condemnable, but I honestly have a hard time seeing Andy Shalal as a victim here. Update, 2/9: Poet says his heist of cardboard Langston Hughes was a literary protest of Busboys & Poets The alleged sticky-fingered poet did not respond to us by press time. But as of Monday night, Langston had not been located. On Monday afternoon, a restaurant manager received a cellphone photo of the folded cardboard poet, purportedly somewhere at the Wardman. Miller told us he sent a couple of e-mails to the poet urging him to return Langston. Shallal said he scrolled through Thursday night's security camera tapes and recognized the culprit: 'He walks out the door, walks right back in, and snatches it.' Another poet, Holly Bass, told us that the man had mentioned to her that 'I ought to take that.' 'I thought it was just an offhand remark,' she said. Miller assumed Shallal had loaned Flat Langston and was surprised to see all the flyers asking for its return.

Miller confided that he saw another respected poet walking around the writers conference Friday with the cutout under his arm. Ethelbert Miller had their weekly breakfast. Shallal speculated that some college student had swiped it for his dorm room, and put out an APB: A 'Missing' notice on Facebook and flyers all over the neighborhood. 'That's sacrilegious, like stealing Jesus.' 'Who would steal Langston?' said owner Andy Shallal. Shortly before 9 p.m., one of the managers noticed that the cutout had disappeared. On Thursday night, Busboys was packed with customers, including a group from the annual Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference, meeting in D.C. The restaurant was named after Hughes, who worked as a busboy at D.C.'s Wardman Park Hotel in the 1920s, so the cutout was a big hit with the artists and writers who frequent the place. 1 birthday, Busboys & Poets on 14th Street NW ordered a $150 life-size cardboard photo of Hughes - just like the presidential ones tourists pose with near the White House. Today's literary mystery: the case of the purloined Langston Hughes.

Busboy and poets washington dc