Undiscovered SF’s Sunday street markets continue to offer a COVID-19-safe weekend outdoor shopping experience in San Francisco's SOMA Pilipinas culture district, helping to buoy participating vendors and put unique products in the hands of shoppers.
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THOSE walking down Folsom and Howard streets in San Francisco’s South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood can get a brief lesson in the Abakada alphabet, which was once taught as part of the Philippine national language.
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Peñaranda also helped pick out the publication name. “Liwanag” is Tagalog for “light,” or “clarity.” Their theme was connection to heritage, but their goal was to embed the Filipinx-American experience within the national conversation. They didn’t just want Filipinx and Filipinx-Americans reading it, they wanted people all over America thumbing through its pages.
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The Planning Commission unanimously approved a resolution calling for the Planning Department to center racial and social equity in its work by developing strategies to counter structural racism in collaboration with communities of color. It also instructed staff to alter its hiring practices to reflect The City’s demographics and to build establish metrics to track accountability.
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San Francisco’s Kultivate Labs, the nonprofit economic development and arts organization that has been instrumental in establishing the SOMA Pilipinas Cultural District, which recognizes and celebrates the local Filipino community, is leading a fundraising effort to keep Filipino chefs in business by hiring them to cook for seniors and low-income residents of SOMA Pilipinas—as well as for health care workers at hospitals including UCSF, Laguna Honda and Daly City’s newly-reopened Seton Medical Center, where 60% of the nurses are Filipino.
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The vote marks a significant breakthrough for community advocates who fought the project to protect Victoria Manalo Draves Park, a two-acre open space heavily used by SoMa neighbors. More than 100 people — many being SoMa youth who rely on the park — spoke against the development-induced shadow for up to two hours. Many reiterated that VMD Park functions as the neighborhood’s backyard, as most residents are crowded into studio apartments or SROs.
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It is proving to be another banner year — literally and figuratively — for SOMA Pilipinas, San Francisco’s first-ever Filipino cultural district. The designated area, located in the city’s South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood, is meant to revive and preserve the Filipino-American community that has a storied history there.
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In its second year and with its final month of the season about to wrap up, Undiscovered SF, a night market in SoMa's Pilipinas cultural heritage district, is making headway to become a permanent fixture in the neighborhood.
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THE National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has awarded SOMA Pilipinas, San Francisco’s Filipino Cultural Heritage District a $100,000 “Our Town” arts grant to fund the planning process for the increased visibility of Filipino arts, culture, and design. Through this grant, SOMA Pilipinas hopes to reverse decades of underrepresentation of the Filipino community’s history and culture.
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In July, the California Arts Council announced that the SOMA (South of Market) Pilipinas — Filipino Cultural Heritage District in San Francisco — will serve as a state-designated Cultural District. California’s newly launched Cultural District program will support 14 cultural districts to promote the Golden State’s cultural diversity. The California Arts Council will provide statewide marketing strategies, technical assistance and branding resources to selected cultural districts for the next five years, partnering with Visit California and the California Department of Transportation.
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In an effort to preserve community diversity and identity, the California Arts Council launched a cultural district pilot program as a way of “highlighting thriving cultural diversity and unique artistic identities within local communities across California.”
Two San Francisco communities, Calle 24 Latino Cultural District and South of Market (SoMa) Pilipinas, have been designated as cultural districts.
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