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Welcome to the

K-TOWN ARCHIVE

Intergenerational oral history and digital archive preserving lived experiences, cultural practices, and collective healing within Los Angeles' Koreatown community.

FriendshipFamilyIntergenerational familyWest HollywoodPart-time employment
A diagram of acupuncture points on the human body at the National Museum of Korea.
Photo courtesy of Korea Tourism Organization and Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea, via AntiqueAlive.com
A botanical illustration of Betonica orientalis, engraving from Tournefort's Corollarium Institutionum Rei Herbariae (1717).
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A sepia-toned photograph of a nautilus shell cut in cross-section, revealing its spiraling internal chambers in a logarithmic pattern.
Photo by Frederick H. Evans, Section through a Shell of the Nautilus, 1900-1915, via Instagram (@areasvellas)

Browse the archive

Three ways to explore

Black-and-white photo of a man believed to be Dr. John R. Sibley conducting a dental exam, assisted by two nurses holding instruments.

People & Narrators

People interviewed about their lives and healing practices within the Koreatown community.

Meet the narrators
Charros riding horses in a Mexican Independence Day parade in East Los Angeles, California, 1973.

Archival Collections

Historical photographs and visual materials from the Koreatown community, arranged for browsing.

Browse collections
Members of a Korean American women's group in traditional Korean clothing standing with a Korean drummer in Los Angeles, California, circa 1952.

Themes & Topics

Organized thematic categories from Koreatown — from healing arts to community stories.

Explore by topic

About the Archive

Preserving stories of
collective healing

The K-Town Archive is a project of the Koreatown Storytelling Program — an intergenerational, multilingual, and multiethnic oral history and digital media program teaching ethnographic and storytelling techniques to high school students and older adults.

Now expanding to document the Bangladeshi community of Little Bangladesh, the archive bridges cultures, generations, and healing practices for researchers and community members alike.

Learn More about the K-Town Archive
Korean dancers and musicians performing.

Browse the archive

Stories from the archive

Yushin Kim
KSP COVID 2020

Yushin Kim

YOUTHOral History2020
Andrew Costa
KSP COVID 2020

Andrew Costa

ELDEROral History2020
Jong Park
KSP COVID 2020

Jong Park

ELDEROral History2020
Jennifer L.
KSP COVID 2020

Jennifer L.

ELDEROral History2020
Pastor Joe
KSP COVID 2020

Pastor Joe

ELDEROral History2020
Crystal Yoon
KSP COVID 2020

Crystal Yoon

YOUTHOral History2020
Sara Suk
KSP COVID 2020

Sara Suk

ELDEROral History2020
Gina Kim
KSP COVID 2020

Gina Kim

YOUTHOral History2020
Browse all stories

Mapping Our Neighborhoods

The K-Town Atlas

The K-Town Atlas is a collection of maps that documents the history and culture of the Koreatown, Westlake, and Pico-Union neighborhoods in Los Angeles. This digital humanities project has been co-created in collaboration with students from UCLA, Cal State Northridge and the RFK Community Schools. Explore each interactive map to discover historic images, interviews, community portraits, and more.

Browse K-Town Atlas (opens in a new tab)
A map of central Los Angeles with the Koreatown, Westlake, and Pico-Union neighborhoods highlighted in blue and marked with red points of interest.
Glass jars of dried roots and herbs lined up on a shelf.

Personalized entry

Explore the Archive By Path

For everyone

Explore topics of interest and provide insight and comments on existing data

Learn more
A globe-thistle (Echinops viscosus) plant, photographed by the American Colony in Palestine, circa 1900-1920.

For Healers

Share your background, practice, & modalities to enrich healing community

Learn more
A woman in embroidered clothing applies a remedy to another woman's arm under an outdoor canopy tent.

For Researchers

Utilize primary sources and archival data relevant to your field of study

Learn more
Kyu Chang Lee waiting on young customers at his grocery store on Central Avenue in Los Angeles, California, 1986.

Getting started

Using the archive

19th-century botanical engraving of two Egyptian water lilies, Nymphaea Lotus and Nymphaea Caerulea, with flowers, leaves, roots, and detailed seed and flower-part studies, from Description de l'Egypte (1809).
  1. 01

    Search Stories

    Enter any keyword — a person's name, a place, a healing modality, or a year. The archive searches across all stories and collections.

  2. 02

    Filter by Language

    The archive holds stories told in many languages. Narrow your results by language, community, format, or theme to find exactly what you need.

  3. 03

    Listen & Read

    Open any story to hear the original audio next to a full transcript. Read along, or listen in the narrator's own voice.

  4. 04

    Contribute

    Have a story to share? Submit your own oral history, photograph, or piece of writing, and help the archive grow with the community.

Browse the archive

Living community

Meet the healers

Three people pose together on a lawn in a black-and-white snapshot likely taken in Los Angeles in the 1970s or 1980s.

Junwoo Kim

AcupuncturePlant MedicineMental Health

Headshot of Sae-Joon Oh smiling with arms crossed wearing a polo shirt in front of wooden louvered panels.

Sae-Joon Oh

AcupuncturePlant MedicineMental Health

Han Jik Kim in dark medical scrubs sitting at a desk making a peace sign and smiling with a potted plant and white curtain in the background.

Han Jik Kim

AcupuncturePlant MedicineMental Health

A young person wearing glasses and a hoodie stands beside an elderly man in a suit jacket, flat cap and patterned tie outdoors with palm trees in the background.

Sion Kim

Bee Venom Therapy

A young woman sits on a grassy coastal bluff with the ocean and horizon visible behind her.

Lauren Kim

AcupuncturePlant MedicineMental Health

Deisy Gutierrez speaks into a microphone wearing a wide-brimmed hat and El Mercadito Mágico t-shirt while holding papers at an outdoor event with another woman in a matching shirt visible behind her.

Deisy Gutierrez

Spiritual Practice

Two women smile at the camera behind a table with mason jars at an outdoor market or community event.

Blanca Rios

Plant Medicine

Edith Rincon wearing glasses and a graphic t-shirt stands in front of a wall covered with pinned photos and artwork.

Edith Rincon

Energy Healing

Sign in as a healer

Community participation

Tell us your story

A journalist wearing headphones holds a microphone toward a woman seated on a couch during an interview while several other people look on in an indoor setting with decorative frosted glass panels.

If you would like to be interviewed, or if you would like to submit a piece of writing or art, please contact us. We are committed to sharing the voices, experiences and visions of our community on this platform.

Share your story