We speak with two guests who are working to transform their cities into places that support their populations rather than exploiting them and pushing them to the edges. Andy Shallal, artist, activist and owner of the Bus Boys and Poets bookstore restaurants is running for mayor in Washington, DC. He advocates for policies that bring greater community engagement and empower communities through education, employment support and affordable housing. Dean John H. Morris, Jr is head of the Department of Urban Planning and Community Development at Sojourner-Douglass College in Baltimore, MD. He is working with the local community to recreate local neighborhoods so they are places that build and sustain homeownership and local businesses through a grass roots democratized economy.
Listen here:
Transforming Our Cities for the People who live there with Andy Shallal and John Morris by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud
Relevant articles, books and websites:
Transforming Communities from the Bottom Up: S-DC Newsletter
S-DC and the Change4Real Coalition
Clairvoyance: Reweaving the Fabric of Community for Black Folk by John H. Morris, Jr. and Charles Tildon
Guests:
John H. Morris, Jr. is the Dean of the School of Urban Planning and Community Develop at Sojourner-Douglass College, where he has been deeply involved in efforts by residents to revitalize the Oldtown community of East Baltimore. Mr. Morris currently teaches Political Science, Sociology, and Urban Planning at Sojourner-Douglass College. He has also taught negotiation at the University of Baltimore Law School, constitutional law, contract law, torts, and legal writing at Stevenson University. In 1998, he co-edited, with Charles Tildon, Jr., the book Clairvoyance: Reweaving the Fabric of Community for Black Folk, a visionary exploration of a community configured to work for the benefit of African Americans. He graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School.
Andy Shallal is an artist, social entrepreneur and the founder of Busboys and Poets and Eatonville Restaurant.
Andy was first introduced to the restaurant business while working at his father’s carry-out in Annandale VA and later while helping his father to manage the business. He opened Skewers, his first restaurant in the district in 1987 and soon followed with Café Luna, Luna Books, Luna Grill and Mimi’s American Bistro. Each one of his businesses earned high praise from customers and critics alike. In 2005, Andy opened Busboys and Poets. Named after Langston Hughes, who worked as a busboy at the Wardman Park Hotel in DC while writing poetry, Busboys and Poets became an instant hit and a center for politics, culture and art to converge and collide. It has been recognized as one of the most diverse and inclusive restaurant in the city. With 4 locations in the Washington metropolitan area, Busboys and Poets has become home for artists and intellectuals including such notables as Howard Zinn, Cornel West, Alice Walker, Harry Belafonte, Amy Goodman and Nikki Giovanni.
Andy’s businesses employ over 500 employees, nearly half of whom are DC residents, and have received numerous awards and recognitions as places where employees are treated fairly and earn living wages. He is currently working on the minimum wage and sick leave debate in DC and Maryland. This work led him to partner closely with the Restaurant Opportunities Center to establish the first progressive Restaurant Association called RAISE (Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment). Andy’s restaurants have earned the Gold Seal of Approval from the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), a national restaurant worker and owner association that focuses on sustainable business and employment practices. Busboys and Poets and Eatonville Restaurant are members of the American Sustainable Business Council. They have been at the forefront of environmental stewardship being one of the first businesses in Washington, DC to be 100% wind powered and are on the cutting edge of the local/sustainable food movement. He has received numerous awards including the Mayor’s Arts Award, Employer of the Year from the Employment Justice Center and the Mayor’s Environmental Award, The RAMY Award, The Jefferson Medal for Volunteerism among others.
Andy is an activist and organizer committed to progressive causes in Washington, DC. In 1991, he was heavily involved as an organizer and a precinct supervisor in the Jim Zais campaign for the Ward 2 DC Council. The campaign was one of the closest races in DC history with Jim Zais losing to Jack Evans by 300 votes. That same year, he worked on an initiative to limit campaign contributions to $100 for citywide races and $50 for Ward races. The initiative passed by an overwhelming majority of DC voters only to have it repealed by the City Council soon thereafter.
On the national level, Andy was an organizer and a delegate for Jerry Brown when he ran for president in 1992. Prior to moving to DC, Andy was a member of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee in Fairfax Virginia and worked on several races to elect Democrats to the Board of Supervisors. He became a precinct captain and helped to turn a traditionally Republican precinct into a Democratic one. Additionally, Andy has been heavily involved in schools as PTA President and appointee on the Human Rights Committee for Fairfax County Public Schools for several years. During his tenure as Chairman of the Human Rights Committee, he was instrumental in putting together a comprehensive diversity training program for administrators for the school system and dealt with several issues of human rights violations.
Andy has founded or co-founded several peace and justice organizations and holds leadership positions in numerous others. He is on the board of trustees for the Institute for Policy Studies and the Co-founder of Think Local First DC, a local business association of over 400 local and independent businesses working to make DC’s business scene more unique and vibrant. Last year in response to the living wage debate, he helped found RAISE (Restaurant Advancing Industry Standards in Employment), a business association of owners interested in improving business practices in the restaurant industry. He has served on the boards of several arts and peace organizations including The Anacostia Community Museum, DC Vote and the Washington Peace Center.
As an artist, Andy has done several murals throughout the city and in all of his various restaurants. His latest mural can be seen at the newly renovated Anthony Bowen YMCA near the U Street corridor.
Andy is a graduate of Catholic University of America where he studied pre-med – he later attended Howard University School of Medicine. He became disenchanted with pursuing a medical career, left school after one semester and traveled to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. He worked as a server and later managed several local restaurants until he decided to open his own.