S.F.'s pandemic-era cultural hub to close after five years
Located in a transformed parking lot at 967 Mission St., in the heart of the city's Filipino Cultural Heritage District, Kapwa Gardens opened during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 with the help of nonprofit economic development and arts organization Kultivate Labs and more than 300 volunteers.
The garden has since operated as a space for public gatherings and artistic expression, hosting an array of events including yoga, live performances and private gatherings. Now, the area is being vacated to make way for a senior housing development, a project that organizers had known about from the beginning.
'Kapwa Gardens revived the spirit of bayanihan — our tradition of collective care and barn-raising — at a time when everything felt fractured,' Desi Danganan, executive director of Kultivate Labs, told the Chronicle. 'In the middle of a pandemic and a downtown in decline, it became a sanctuary.'
The SOMA space has hosted more than 200 public events and, in 2023 alone, generated more than $115,000 in vendor sales.
It plans to host a free farewell event on July 26 for its beloved Yum Yams gathering, which celebrates ube, a purple yam primarily grown in the Philippines. The event is expected to feature an array of ube snacks, DJ sets, local vendors and more and will be free to attend. Guests can RSVP online.
The city of San Francisco has already awarded pre-development funding for the future site at 4th and Folsom Streets, according to a statement. Danganan added that the goal is to include power, running water and other facilities in the new space.
'This next version isn't just a garden,' he said. 'It's a chance to build a cultural gateway for the Filipino Cultural District.'
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