National Poetry Month ends but Open Mic Night Continues at Busboys and Poets

Acknowledging the end of National Poetry Month also means honoring literary icons who graced the D.C. metropolitan area. This means remembering those such as Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes — to name a few. 

Hughes, in particular, was a busboy prior to being recognized as a poet. According to accounts from The Academy of American Poets and The GW Hatchet, he worked at the Wardman Park Hotel in D.C. during the early 1920s. One evening, he accidentally left a bundle of his poems on a table. A hotel patron discovered his work and decided to share what they found, making his poetry known to a small audience at the hotel’s theater. 

The hotel patron dubbed him the “Negro busboy poet”, and in having knowledge of this obscure historical factoid, Andy Shallal set out to cultivate a cultural hub in 2005, honorably named “Busboys and Poets.”

There are now nine locations of Busboys and Poets across the D.C. metropolitan area. They offer a variety of meals, artistic decor, creative community workshops, in-restaurant bookstores and most famously, weekly open mic nights. 

There’s an open sign-up sheet and a five-minute opportunity to say whatever you wish. Local veteran poets host these nights. Eric “E-Baby” Smith, 55, hosts every fourth Thursday of the month at the Busboys and Poets location in Hyattsville, MD. He has been involved with Busboys and Poets ever since it opened, describing it as “what you make it when you come here”. 

Every night varies depending on the host, crowd and poets. E-Baby highlights that singers, comedians and anyone “can get on this mic, on the stage, then it’s about being family.”

Even further, you don’t have to perform to appreciate these nights. Karen Smith, 51, describes Busboys as a “safe space.” She is a loyal attendee every Thursday evening, and as an audience member, she states that “they kind of inspire [her] to start writing stuff down.”

Busboys and Poets lets people know that you don’t have to be the next Langston Hughes to enjoy poetry, just $5 and a free evening. Within appreciation of this area’s rich literary history, Busboys and Poets offers a stage to opportunistic poets and seats to those who wish to feel inspired.