Thursday, March 30th • 7:30 pm
It’s easy to wax poetic about Korean supermarket chain H Mart: I regularly wander through their Lynnwood location, coveting squishy bottles of Kewpie mayo and picking through leafy mandarin oranges in peak season. Their grocery selection is unparalleled, a triumph over the “ethnic” grocery aisle. Michelle Zauner gets that feeling: “It’s the only place where you can find a giant vat of peeled garlic, because it’s the only place that truly understands how much garlic you’ll need for the kind of food your people eat.”
In 2018, the indie pop songstress—also known as Japanese Breakfast—channeled her signature dreamy, shoegaze vibes into a New Yorker essay that normalized public weeping and prompted a wave of anticipatory grief across the country. That essay became the first chapter of her New York Times best-selling memoir of the same name, Crying in H Mart. Zauner describes the experience of shopping there after losing her mother and aunt to cancer: “Sobbing near the dry goods, I ask myself, “Am I even Korean anymore if there’s no one left in my life to call and ask which brand of seaweed we used to buy?”
To celebrate the book’s paperback publication tour, Seattle Arts & Lectures is hosting a live author talk at Town Hall Seattle on March 30th. Zauner is a PNW native—growing up, she was one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon. Don’t be surprised if this conversation hits close to home in more ways than one. General Admission is $35, or cry along at home with a $25 digital access pass.
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