Adventures at U-Street

As a student participating in one of the Council of Christian College and Universities' (CCCU) BestSemester programs located in Washington, D.C., I was invited yesterday, Jan. 27, to meet many university presidents attending an annual Presidents Conference.

During the dinner, Dr. Charles Pollard, the president of John Brown University in Arkansas, asked my peers and me, "What is your favorite part of the city?"

Having lived in the city for only two weeks, it should have been difficult for me to come to an answer, but it wasn't.

Just north of China town, on the Red line of the metro, lies one of Washington, D.C.'s historical and cultural nuggets, the U-Street Corridor.

I discovered U-Street when, on my fourth day in Washington, D.C., several students and I ate the half-smoke at Ben's Chili Bowl as a part of a video scavenger hunt (seen below).

 

Since discovering this district, I have been back four times.

It is truly a historic and cultural center for the town.  The U-Street corridor was home to much of the Civil Rights movement in D.C. during the greater Civil Rights movement, and Langston Hughes, known as a leader in the Harlem Renaissance, spent extended time on U-Street.

Finally, not failing to mention the jazz clubs, restaurants, bar-and-grills, and night clubs the corridor offers, the original Busboys and Poets is found on the corner of V and 14th street NW, just off of U-Street.

Named after the formerly mentioned Langston Hughes, this coffee shop and restaurant is a home for any artistically or socially justice minded person who finds themselves in Washington, D.C.

I have already found my home in the city in two short weeks, the U-Street corridor.

Comments

[Jessica Puente]

Props for leaving the hill! U-Street corridor is only one of the many places you will come to call home. Try Dupont, look for Kramer's Books.