Busboys and Poets in Hyattsville has new cover art — a large and colorful anti-Trump mural.
The mural appeared last Wednesday outside of the chain’s Shoppes at Arts District location, with the words “Wake up America … DEPORT TRUMP” spanning across the front corner of the restaurant. Before its move to Hyattsville, the politically charged mural was at Busboys and Poets’ 5th & K location in Washington.
D.C.-based graffiti writers and street artists called DC 2 Standing Rock united to complete the mural, which they say serves as “a wake up call about what Trump means to this country.”
[READ MORE: College Park area restaurants closed Thursday to recognize ‘A Day Without Immigrants’]
“We work to challenge racism, imperialism, oligarchy and other systems of violence with the power of art,” the group told the Hyattsville Life and Times. “The ‘Deport Trump’ mural was created as a live art action/demonstration with the Disrupt J20 anti-inauguration protests, where we stood in solidarity with water protectors from Standing Rock, Black Lives Matter, immigrant groups, and countless other groups standing up to the incoming Trump administration.”
A week earlier Busboys and Poets also participated in the Day Without Immigrants protest, closing its doors for the day on Feb. 16 to illustrate the importance of documented and undocumented immigrants in everyday life. Trump promised to crack down on immigration during his campaign, and the Department of Homeland Security announced last week expanded deportation efforts, which include expedited removals for any undocumented immigrant residing anywhere in the nation for less than two years.
Trump has also called for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We’re a very diverse group … We are all a bunch of immigrants here,” said Christopher Howard, the Busboys and Poets Hyattsville location’s front-of-the-house manager, in a previous Diamondback article. Andy Shallal, the establishment’s owner, is an immigrant himself.
The mural will remain at the Hyattsville location for a “few months,” according to a DC 2 Standing Rock Instagram post.
The Diamondback was unable to get a comment from Bus Boys and Poets at the time of publication.
