Fried Chicken, Playrights, and the Harlem Renaissance

For some time now we have been talking about how thinking outside the box is dead and the new frontier for creativity and innovation is at the inter-section where Convergence happens.

As a shining example of this idea, I've discussed Busboys and Poets, which in a very unique manner, fuses the ideas of a restaurant, bookstore and theater. 

The restaurant, which is owned by Andy Shallal, embodies the spirit of the cultural icon Langston Hughes, who was a busboy at the Wardman Park hotel in DC in the 1930's prior to gaining recognition as a poet, playwright and novelist.  The restaurant is a DC hangout for local freelancers, activists, creatives and the like.

So now, Andy is opening up a new spot right across the street called Eatonville. He dubs his new enterprise as DC's "new southern cuisine restaurant" and uses it as a platform to pay homage to another cultural legend of the same time period, Zora Neal Hurston.

He injects some innovative convergence thinking to both market the business and to help find its head chef!

When you tap into your creativity and merge business, culture and technology in new ways, you can get some pretty rockin' stuff - check out the video!