SOMA Pilipinas Ethno VolunTour
SOMA Pilipinas Ethno VolunTour, an interactive walking tour through SOMA Pilipinas, San Francisco’s Filipino Cultural Heritage District. The tour highlights historical sites, events, struggles, and legacies through the anthropological and historical lenses of the Filipino community in the area. It explores the history of SOMA Pilipinas alongside present matters like gentrification, displacement, and everyday stories of community members. Inspired by the traditional Ethno Tour by local historian MC Canlas, Gene Alejo—his mentee and SOMCAN Tenant Counselor—has created interactive elements that include reflection, discussion, and trivia about the neighborhood. This event marks the final day of Here We Live , an exhibition at KADIST that sheds light on the ways in which communities adapt, through traditional and personal cultures, to a changing, transforming, and shifting world. This event is in collaboration with the South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN). RSVP is required. A $5 deposit will secure your spot and be refunded upon check-in. About South of Market Community Action Network During the late 1990s, spurred on by the Dot Com Boom, many parts of San Francisco were reeling from rapid gentrification. SOMA, one of the last affordable neighborhoods in the City, suddenly became unaffordable. In 2000, as a direct response to the increasing threats in the sustainability of the SOMA community, SOMCAN was formed by community leaders from youth, senior, veteran, Filipino, and housing organizations to address gentrification and displacement issues. SOMCAN built a resident base that would educate, organize, and mobilize the neighborhood in fighting for their basic human rights to live, work, and thrive in SOMA and San Francisco.