A cherished cultural hub for San Francisco’s Filipino community is closing down after serving as an inclusive community space for 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…