Symposium Keynote: Andy Shallal
Sunday, May 18, 2025
1:00pm – 2:00pm
Kelly Strayhorn Theater | 5941 Penn Ave.
Pay What Moves You:
Single Tickets: $15 – $30
Symposium Pass: $150 – $300
Artist, social entrepreneur, and founder/CEO of Busboys and Poets, Andy Shallal, delves into the power of ownership in cultural spaces. Drawing from his experience building Busboys and Poets—an innovative restaurant group in the DMV where art, culture, and politics intentionally collide over mindfully sourced food, drinks, books, and events—Andy will highlight how intentional spaces can ignite activism, equity, and resilience, shaping a future where Black and Brown-led arts institutions thrive.
This event is part of Owning Our Future: A Symposium on BIPOC Institutional Ownership.
AND DON’T MISS…
Symposium Keynote: Lisa Yancey 
Thursday, May 15, 2025
11:00am – 1:30pm
Kelly Strayhorn Theater | 5941 Penn Ave.
Pay What Moves You: $15 – $30
- ABOUT THE KEYNOTE
- About Owning Our Future Symposium
Andy Shallal is an artist, social entrepreneur, and founder/CEO of Busboys and Poets, a restaurant group in the Washington Metropolitan area that blends art, culture, and politics. With locations in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, Busboys serves as a hub for progressives, artists, and intellectuals. Committed to sustainability, it’s 100% wind-powered and locally sourced. Shallal, a 2018 Frederick Douglass 200 award winner, is also active in peace and justice organizations and has run for Mayor of D.C.
KST is leading a groundbreaking national symposium that aims to reshape the future of accessible, equitable cultural spaces owned and anchored by BIPOC communities.
Guided by our vision “Owning Our Future. Thriving Where We Live.,” this three-day gathering in May 2025 serves as a platform to catalyze a critical national dialogue and chart a path forward.
Collaborating with an advisory committee of national and local colleagues, KST curates a cross-industry program that features discussions, performances, and celebrations with leaders in art, activism, urban planning, philanthropy, and government. Together we imagine new financial, operational, and physical structures for BIPOC-owned arts spaces, addressing the structural inequities that the pandemic laid bare.
The symposium spotlights organizations employing new strategies to safeguard culture in their communities. It engages forward-thinking stakeholders invested in emergent models. Look forward to thought-provoking panel sessions, inspiring keynote addresses, and dynamic performances by Pittsburgh and national artists.