WriteGirl Mentee Shares Poem at Skirball Cultural Center event

WriteGirl mentee Jane shared her poetry as a featured speaker at a special event on April 19, 2023 at the Skirball Cultural Center, a distinguished Jewish educational institution in Los Angeles. The event commemorated the publication of the anthology The People’s Tongue: Americans and the English Language, which celebrates the immigrant voices and cultural influences that make American English a uniquely robust and varied language. Using her personal experience of home to celebrate the night’s theme, Jane performed her poem, Classic Koreatown, which is also published in the WriteGirl online literary journal Lines & Breaks.

Classic Koreatown

Koreatown, Los Angeles.
Where the smell of ruby-red fermented cabbage,
a slight tang of the sea,
a brush of chili powder,
김치 (kimchi) envelops me in an everlasting warm embrace.
A constant comfort,
wisps of my ancestors’ voices,
remnants of Korean history
oceans away from me.

Koreatown, Los Angeles.
A hidden landing pad
for when my wings spiral out of control.
A base I can call home
that’s taught me how to thrive in a community of people
from different cultures and backgrounds,
searching for smiles,
a drop in an overwhelming ocean.

Koreatown, Los Angeles,
Commonwealth Ave.
Where the wails of my furious baby sister,
a siren on the battlefield,
kept me awake
as I counted the stars stretching above me,
smiling at my infinity.

Koreatown, Los Angeles,
Commonwealth Ave.
The horror-movie basement,
flickering lights and fairy dust.
The screeching gate I imagined was brother to the Tin Man
keeping me company.
The elevator that’s always chasing the end of a memory,
tunnel vision, barreling down.

Koreatown, Los Angeles,
Commonwealth Ave.
Where I stand with my neighbors
shoulder-to-shoulder.
“You’ve grown so much,”
a smile here.
“Have a good day,”
a nod there.

Koreatown.

The gift
of keeping my mother language alive,
of walking through the perfume of 김치 (kimchi),
every day,
without fail.

A town filled with golden memories.
City of Angels,
my Koreatown.