Chicago, IL - April 9, 2024 - Inspired by her young daughter’s questions about race and racism, Dr. OiYan Poon — an educator, race and education scholar, and author — is publishing her latest book Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family. Through personal reflective essays for and about her daughter, Dr. Poon looks at how the debate over affirmative action reveals the divergent ways Asian Americans conceive of their identity and earnestly responds to the central question: What does it mean to be Asian American? Poon is currently touring the U.S. to discuss her book, which is set to release on April 30th through Beacon Press and is available for pre-order.
Los Angeles, CA - February 5, 2024 - Filipino American nonprofit organization Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) supported over 2400 community members in Historic Filipinotown (HiFi) through their youth, wellness, and mental health services in 2023 — serving over 400 individuals through their health and wellness services alone. SIPA will unveil a new wellness center in the spring and expand their programming in LA County throughout 2024.
San Francisco, CA - January 30, 2024 - Filipino American nonprofit Kultivate Labs is defying San Francisco’s ‘doom loop’ narrative — witnessing significant economic growth in SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District through their multi-pronged economic development and arts initiatives in 2023 alone. In addition to nurturing the development of five new anchor businesses in the district — Bituin, Make it Mariko’s Soma Social Club, Izzy’s Sandwiches, Mestiza, and the Filipino American Development Fund (FADF) — the organization will offer at least nine major events and programs in 2024 to continue fostering business and preserving Filipino culture and community.
Unceded Miwok and Pomo Territory/Sacramento, CA - January 22, 2024 - Remagination Farm and Magpie Alchemy have teamed up to offer Pa/Hinga — a series of sessions focused on collective rest and reconnection to the sacredness of the land — which debuts on February 10th, 2024 at the Amado Khaya Healing House, located in Clear Lake County at a private event. This unique collaboration, rooted in community care and Pinay (Filipina American) sisterhood, includes small batch, handcrafted healing products that will be available to purchase online after February 10.
Los Angeles, CA - November 15, 2023 - Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) — a longstanding Filipino-American nonprofit dedicated to improving the quality of life for Filipino Americans in Historic Filipinotown (HiFi) and beyond through ongoing youth programs, mental health education, affordable housing, and more — is centering teens and their holiday wish lists in an annual toy giveaway on Sunday, December 10th from 10am-3pm at HiFi collective. In addition to a toy distribution, this holiday event will include grocery distribution, brunch, resource booths, a vaccination clinic, and more.
San Francisco, CA - October 18, 2023 - Kultivate Labs, Balay Kreative, and Filipino American artists Emagn and TITTY BOY are creating “Ancestor Altars” — an art installation and healing space for the San Francisco Filipinx, BIPOC & SOMA community to honor their ancestors and grieve for their loved ones that have passed away. The art installation is open to the public at Kapwa Gardens from November 1st to 3rd so that community members may add their own photos, pieces of remembrance, and pay their respects to their ancestors. The viewing will culminate in a special All Souls Day celebration on Saturday, November 4th, 12-4pm where families can gather, listen to live musical performances, share stories of their loved ones and enjoy the day together.
UNDISCOVERED SF — a Filipino creative market produced by Kultivate Labs and Make it Mariko — returns for its seventh season, honoring the 50 year anniversary of Hip Hop with three block parties on August 19, September 16, and October 21 in SOMA Pilipinas with the main entrance located at 5th and Minna Street. This year’s Filipino American Block Party theme celebrates Hip Hop’s past, present, and future influence and impact on Filipinos, and how Filipino Americans have also influenced Hip Hop respectively. UNDSCVRD’s first block party on Saturday, August 19 debuts with internationally renowned DJ Neil Armstrong, rapper Rocky Rivera with DJ Roza, and DJ Icy Ice of the Beat Junkies. Toro y Moi will donate his ‘Mahal’ tour jeepney bus to SOMA Pilipinas, becoming a permanent love letter and contemporary landmark to the Filipino community.
Centered on the bouts of unprecedented change and excitement for a new future, the play Josephine’s Feast is about a Black matriarch who decides to share a pivotal decision with her family over a birthday celebration feast. In the story, Josephine embraces her now as a seasoned parent and divorcee in post-pandemic life while discovering her new calling. Powerhouse playwright Star Finch centers the intersection of motherhood, legacy, identity, and spirituality through the lens of candid intergenerational family dynamics.
San Francisco, CA - June 29, 2023 - Lily Spruce — a WOC-led event planning and design firm founded by Genevieve Roja for couples that strive for originality and authenticity — is entering a new era. Lily Spruce is joining forces with Make it Mariko, an experiential event agency led by WOC and founded by Gina Mariko Rosales focused on creating magical, meaningful moments for the community. In the face of a looming downtown “doom loop,” Roja and Rosales are developing a creative events agency focused on creating jobs and opportunities for creatives, entrepreneurs, and artists of color in events, while curating events and activations that bring people back to San Francisco through arts and culture.
San Francisco, CA - May 31, 2023 - The San Francisco Bay Area is the second most populous region for Filipinos in the United States, with Filipinos making up to 4.6% of San Francisco’s population. Filipinos are not only an integral part of San Francisco history, but an active part of the city’s identity today. “Cultural Kultivators,” a new podcast by Kutivate Labs and hosted by Nicole Salaver, honors the diversity and richness of the Filipino American experience while inspiring listeners to explore and celebrate their own cultural heritage. Salaver, the Program Manager at Filipino-American arts accelerator Balay Kreative, interviews Filipino American thought leaders, entrepreneurs, activists and artists who are making a positive impact in their respective fields. “Cultural Kultivators” launches on May 31st with Asian American studies scholar Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales as its first interviewee, followed by rapper Ruby Ibarra for its second episode, street artist Allison Hueman for its third episode, and artist Nikbo for its fourth episode.
Oakland Public Conservatory of Music(OPC) proudly announces the four fellows selected for the inaugural Black Banjo & Fiddle Fellowship (BBFF). Done in collaboration with the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, this 2-year fellowship and teacher training program repatriates old time music in African American communities, illuminates the Black experience in creating old-time music, and repairs the historical and cultural ruptures that erased the Black origins of banjo and fiddle music.
Asian American Women Artists Association and the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center present the multidisciplinary art exhibition Jade Wave Rising: Portraits of Power, opening April 27, 2023 in San Francisco.
Unceded Miwok and Pomo Territory/Sacramento, CA - February 27, 2023 - The Remagination Lab, Founded by highly accomplished researcher and well-loved community advocate, Dr. Robyn Rodriguez, and her husband, second-generation Hmong refugee and nature expert Joshua Vang, incubates and experiments in producing creatively bold, unconventional, and deeply transformative programs and services informed by social justice movements, indigenous and land-based knowledge, the arts, radical love, and healing.
San Francisco, CA - January 30, 2023 - Since its inception in 2017, Kultivate Labs has been dedicated to building a thriving commercial corridor in the SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District. After a successful 2022, the non-profit economic development and arts organization will continue rolling out programming in the new year that reflects the needs and vision of the community at large such asnew artist grants, space and other resources for pop-up businesses and artists, a free outdoor concert series, and a creative market spanning three events.
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San Francisco, CA - September 19, 2022 - Filipino cultural center Balay Kreative, artist Cece Carpio and artist TITTY are collaborating with Filipinx/a/o and BIPOC community members to honor their deceased loved ones through art installation “Ancestor Altars.” On view from October 27-30 at Kapwa Gardens and in a virtual gallery.
September 19, 2022, Los Angeles, CA– First convened in April 2020, the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (LESMCC) provides curriculum and professional development rooted in the radical, grassroots legacy of Ethnic Studies. With a statewide deadline of 2029, the implementation of a true Ethnic Studies curriculum is at the forefront of school district agendas. But Ethnic Studies is more than a graduation requirement, it has a profound positive impact in the classroom that ripples directly to the communities of students.
San Francisco, CA - September 19, 2022 - UNDISCOVERED (UNDSCVRD) SF — San Francisco’s premier Filipino Night Market and Food & Music Festival — is back for its sixth season as a daytime, theme park-inspired festival on October 22, 2022 from 12-6pm. This year UNDSCVRD, a Kultivate Labs and Make it Mariko creation, spans several locations in the SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District and welcomes notable Filipino American guests such as DJ Miles Medina and Chef Harold Villarosa.
After the extrajudicial murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, Oluwatoyin Salau and countless other Black people in 2020, thousands of artists painted murals on the streets of Oakland as an expression of protest, activism and solidarity. Recognizing the historic significance of this artistic groundswell, EastSide Arts Alliance teamed up with Nomadic Press to document and preserve the outdoor gallery and the stories behind them. Their new book, Painting the Streets: Oakland Uprising in the Time of Rebellion, is a full-color, hardcover art book featuring nearly 100 murals created in support of the ongoing struggle for Black liberation along with essays, poems and other reflections by activists and cultural workers.
In honor of its publication, San Francisco Public Library’s African American Center is hosting a 3-month exhibition showcasing the local Black artists who captured the spirit of the June 2020 movement and transformed Oakland.
