Board says that a developer can't buy off the city when it comes to blocking sunshine in a crowded neighborhood. Read more…

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.

SOMCAN, or the South of Market Community Action Network, has its hands in so many issues that even director Angelica Cabande struggles to summarize all the issues the group tackles.

“It’s hard to put into one sentence,” she says. “Our primary work is around educating, organizing, and mobilizing folks in the different things that we want to do. I really see SOMCAN’s role as not only helping preserve but helping the neighborhood grow in a way that includes them.”

Dance in the Bay Area reflects and amplifies the diversity of our community and our world, and the nominations for the 2017-2018 Isadora Duncan Dance Awards honor an inclusive array of genres, genders, cultures and points of view. The awards will be given out at a free public event (and one of the season’s best parties) in spring 2019, with a date to be announced.

The Izzies, as they’re affectionately called, recognize the September-through-August performance season, so an award might go to a performance that took place 18 months prior to the ceremony. Looking over this year’s list, it’s unlikely that the memory of any of these compelling artists and works has faded in the meantime.

In the full-company category, the Ballet’s entire roster of dancers got a shout-out for back-to-back-to-back outstanding performances. Sean Dorsey Dance and Margaret Jenkins Dance Company also garnered nominations, alongside OngDance Company for the glorious “Salt Doll” in the S.F. Ethnic Dance Festival and Alleluia Panis’ Diasporic Futurism Dance-Media Project for “Incarcerated 6×9,” an immersive referendum on life behind bars that was also recognized for visual design.

“Tucked away in San Francisco’s South of Market district and encircled by streets named after Filipino heroes, lies Lipi Ni Lapu Lapu mural, one of many historical markers encountered on an afternoon ethno-tour hosted by City College’s Philippine Studies department.”

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.

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.

“Beat writer Jack Kerouac wrote about the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood’s reputation as a seedy skid row in his book Lonesome Traveler. But for decades, SoMa has also been the city’s center for Filipino culture.”

The cultural district aims to stabilize and strengthen a neighborhood in flux. But Filipinos in S.F. have seen their community obliterated before.

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.

The grant will 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.

The 2018 season of the lone Filipino Night market in San Francisco is off to an auspicious start, capitalizing on the momentum it built from last year, when thousands of participants trooped to its South of the Market Area (SOMA) venue.

A "people’s choir" advocated Tuesday for a ballot measure to save projected hotel tax revenues for arts programs.

Some people tend to think of SF’s South of Market neighborhood as a personality-less stretch of the city lined with high-rise condos and sprawling warehouses, plus AT&T Park and SFMOMA. But in reality, behind those tech-fueled skyscrapers, there is a rich cultural heritage.

SAN FRANCISCO — For 25 years, the annual Pistahan Parade and Festival has showcased the best of Filipino art, dance, music and food at the Yerba Buena Gardens in the heart of downtown San Francisco.

Undiscovered SF, this city’s only and biggest Filipino-inspired night market, returns for its 2018 season on July 21, with more culinary temptations for foodies of all ages.

From the gorgeous to the hideous to the absolutely inexplicable, we scoured the city by foot and on bikes to document hundreds of alleys, side streets, and lanes.

This year’s edition (the third) of the annual Dialogue in the Diaspora featured a benefit performance, dialogues, a kamayan dinner with performances, and workshops on June 15, 16, and 17 at the Bayanihan Community Center at the heart of SOMA: Pilipinas, the Filipino Cultural Heritage District.