elisliquorstore

Elijah’s Liquor Store is set in Koreatown circa 1999. It’s the story of Elijah Gooden, a 43-year-old African-American man from Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from Georgia Tech University and worked in corporate America before moving his family to Los Angeles to start his own business. He and his family experience culture shock and adversity as they struggle to build their livelihood in an area dominated by Asian-American business owners. Although Elijah is the main narrator of the story, the different cast of patrons he interacts with, provides a broad insight into society as a whole. His customers are white, black, Asian and Latino. He employs a Korean and Latino worker. His neighbor next door is Korean. It‘s worlds apart from what he knew in Atlanta, and despite the varying degrees of suspicion, contempt, resentment and prejudice that he faces, Gooden tries to overlook racial lines and instead, focus on the humanity of every person and the frailties of their condition. In the end, relationships are re-examined and ideologies are challenged. Communities that have long been separated by language and cultural barriers as well as painful histories and even media propaganda find that change begins with one person. When one person shifts, everything shifts. When one person is committed to change, that person can powerfully bring about change. If our society needs a wake up call, then Elijah’s Liquor Store is the alarm clock.