Joseph Green is a spoken word artist, educator, and motivational speaker

with over 15 years’ experience in youth development. He co-founded poetryN.O.W., a nonprofit providing creative writing programming and curriculum for DC-area youth and schools. While serving as Split This Rock’s Director of Youth Programs for 3 years, he transferred poetryN.O.W’s work into Split This Rock’s care. Joseph has performed, hosted, and featured throughout the United States, including at the White House, Kennedy Center, and American Society of Addiction Medicine’s annual conference. He has qualified to compete at Poetry Slam Inc.’s National Poetry Slam five times and ranked 16th at the 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam. In 2017, Joseph started LMSvoice to help people and socially conscious organizations discover and share the transformative power of story.

This poem is reprinted from Split This Rock’s Poem of the Week Series. Feel free to share it widely. Please include all of the information in this post, including this request and a link to the poem at Split This Rock’s website. Thanks! 

For more poems of provocation and witness, please visit The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database at www.splitthisrock.org

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

first date

Busboys and Poets First Date Story: Pauline and Tim

So we found out from Instagram that Pauline and Tim, who are now married, had their first date at Busboys and Poets. Then Tim proposed to Pauline at the Hyattsville open mic! We asked them to tell us about their first date, how they found each other and relationship advice!   What did you two … Continued

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Alice Walker in Conversation with Andy Shallal at National Museum of African American History and Culture

When: Tuesday, October 16, 2018, 7-9pm Details: Busboys and Poets and The National Museum of African American History and Culture present an evening with renowned author, Alice Walker.  An internationally celebrated writer, poet and activist whose works include short fiction, children’s books, volumes of essays and novels, among them The Color Purple for which she … Continued

Covid-19 Protocol

Covid-19 Protocol

Due to the upcoming vaccination/testing requirements, we are re-posting the Busboys and Poets Safety Protocol: “The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented moment in history and has impacted the hospitality industry unlike anything else we have experienced before.  This manual is an introduction to how Busboys and Poets plans to get in front of the situation, … Continued