30th Anniversary Celebration for Politics and Prose

by Marlene Berlin

Politics and Prose is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and you’re invited to an all-day party on Sunday, September 7th.

The festivities start at 10 a.m., with a special focus on P&P’s youngest customers. These include a story hour in the morning and two afternoon sessions with Dave Burbank, who teaches the Comics Jam and Scribbler’s Cabal drawing class at the bookstore. Snacks will be provided.

Then at 5 p.m., the adult customers and staff get to toast P&P’s three decades with champagne and nibbles. The current owners and co-founder Barbara Meade will be there for the occasion and to debut a video commemorating 30 years with everyone.

Don’t miss it. There will be more details on the Politics and Prose website as the event draws closer.

Politics and Prose opened at 5010 Connecticut Avenue, its first location, in 1984. It moved across the street to its current location in 1989. The café within opened in 1991. The bookstore has expanded twice over the years, first to build up its children’s section when the Cheshire children’s bookstore in Chevy Chase DC closed and Jewell Stoddard, one of its partners, came on board. Then P&P expanded its adult book section into the property next door.

When co-founder Carla Cohen died in 2010, Meade and Cohen’s husband took on a serious search for new owners. The store was sold in 2011 to the husband-and-wife team Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine, both former journalists with the Washington Post. They have continued to provide our community with an intellectually-stimulating and engaging resource we treasure. (Read more about P&P’s history.)