Arnold Byun was 31 when he described the launch of Friends & Family Flea as a homecoming, and the word fits. Nearly five years earlier, he and his co-founder, Kioh Park, were living in Koreatown and spending months at Document Coffee Bar, sketching out what would eventually become MAUM Market, the Asian makers market they launched in January 2022. The market grew into a regular presence at ROW DTLA, where it hosts pop-up markets on Dock Street several times a year, and expanded into a national footprint with activations in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. But the idea itself was born in Koreatown, and the new flea is a deliberate return.
"The genesis of MAUM Market is actually really embedded in Koreatown," Byun told The LA Local. "And we have a lot of affection and personal history with Koreatown, so it's a very personal thing for us just to return to our roots."
Friends & Family Flea applies that same logic at a smaller, more neighborhood-scaled register. The debut brings together 24 independent vendors, and Byun said most of them have some connection to Koreatown — some grew up in the neighborhood, some still live there, and others have moved away but kept their ties. "We've been trying to be pretty intentional about curating from the community as much as possible," he said. The vendor list spans apparel brands, artists, jewelry makers, beauty and wellness businesses, and food vendors. Among the offerings are sogeum-bbang, or salt bread, along with tea, handmade candles, soaps, and vintage clothing.
The setting is Un-Other Space, a 4,500-square-foot warehouse at 524 S. Western Ave. with a private courtyard. The venue's own materials describe in-house event production and a flexible room built for screenings, exhibitions, live music, and brand launches, which makes it a fitting host for a market that is part retail floor and part neighborhood gathering.
Two of the day's draws are less about shopping than about sitting down with strangers. The LA Hwatu-Hanafuda Club will demonstrate hwatu, the Korean deck of playing cards with roots in Japan. In Korea the cards are known as hwatu — "flower battle" — and are typically made of plastic with a textured back, with the November and December suits switched relative to Japanese hanafuda. The best-known game played with them is go-stop, a fixture of Korean holidays and family tables. The same group will offer tarot readings for $5.
There is also a charitable thread running through the day. Proceeds from hats sold at the flea will go to the Koreatown Youth and Community Center, the nonprofit known as KYCC. KYCC was established in 1975, when the Asian American Drug Abuse Program launched an outreach project called the Korean Youth Center to address the needs of a growing population of at-risk youth in Los Angeles. It has since become the leading multiservice organization in Koreatown, supporting children and families in education, health, housing, and finances. Its mission, as the organization states it, is to serve the evolving needs of the Korean American population in greater Los Angeles as well as the multiethnic Koreatown community, with programs directed toward recently immigrated and economically disadvantaged youth and families. The hat proceeds are a small gesture, but a pointed one: money raised inside the neighborhood, routed to an institution that has been working in it for half a century.
Organizers are thinking past the debut. Byun told LAist that if the first event goes well, they hope to bring the market back to Koreatown on a monthly basis, and they plan to offer discounted vendor fees to Koreatown residents. Those plans depend on how the launch goes, and no recurring schedule has been confirmed. It is a familiar posture for a first market — test the room, see who shows up, then decide whether the thing has legs.
What the day offers, in the meantime, is a fairly specific pleasure: a free, all-ages market in a converted warehouse, stocked mostly by people from the surrounding blocks, with a card game older than most of the vendors and a tarot table charging five dollars. Admission is free, though organizers are asking attendees to RSVP. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Un-Other Space, 524 S. Western Ave.