Andy Shallal glanced around the room full of D.C. voters, finally attentive, and then back at the two teenagers who wanted to first read poetry. The Busboys and Poets owner had been waiting for hours, past 11 p.m., to address the crowd. It was well beyond the point at which the five more-practiced politicians ahead of him in the race for mayor might have stayed to appeal to a house party.

But Shallal is not a typical candidate. He smiled and ceded the stage — and perhaps his moment — as the young poets struck up a hip-hop beat and began pounding out themes of peace, justice and the quest to send “Andy Shallal to city hall.”

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