Kapwa Gardens, which opened in SoMa in 2020 amid the pandemic lows, will close next Saturday, July 26th, before reopening at a second location sometime in the future.
Kapwa Gardens, the Filipino multi-purpose space in San Francisco’s South of Market Neighborhood, was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The culture and community incubator Kulitvate Labs financially sponsored the project, which has hosted many viral events (read: San Francisco’s first festival dedicated to all things ube) and served as a touchstone for Filipino culture.
Alas, the Filipino hub is set to close on July 17th, going out with a bang (read: one last Ube Festival).
Announced in a blog post by the nonprofit, Kapwa Gardens will close after five years, though the shuttering is neither permanent nor without purpose. Kapwa 2.0 is set to open elsewhere in SoMa — pre-development funding for Kapwa Gardens 2.0 has been secured for the future site at 4th and Folsom that will carry the same vision of “healing, creativity, and cultural resurgence” — and the closing of its first iteration will now make way for affordable senior housing.
(967 Mission Street is set to open as a new 100% affordable rental building in SoMa; the project is being co-developed by The John Stewart Company and Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services in partnership with the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD); the building will contain at least 95 apartments buildings.)
“Kapwa Gardens was never just a space—it was an experiment in empathy, imagination, and what’s possible when community leads,” said Desi Danganan, Executive Director of Kultivate Labs in the post. “As we transition to what’s next, we’re staying rooted in the same values that brought us here—sustainability, inclusion, and shared joy.”
Over its five years, Kapw Gardens hosted over 260+ public events, spotlighted dozens of vendors and artists, generated hundreds of thousands of dollars — vendor sales at Kapwa Gardens reached $115,000 in 2023 alone — and built and fostered a community of 300 volunteers.
Before the first iteration closes, one final event at the current site — “Yum Yams 2025: A Final Community Gathering” — will take place on Saturday, July 26, honoring the spirit of the beloved Ube Festival and everything the community encompasses.
“Kapwa Gardens means a lot to me. I was there from the start,” said cultural practitioner and artist Kristian Kabuay. “I lived a block away and co-designed and painted the bus. The markets helped me grow my Batok (traditional tattoo) practice as a communication channel to the community. Economically, it helped me sustain living downtown and reinvest in my community work. Sad to see it go, but I’m confident that we’ll rebuild in some way in the future.”
The opening dates of Kapwa Gardens 2.0 haven’t been announced yet, but make sure to lose in one last purple haze on July 26th, between 12 p.m. and 5 p.m.; like all other past Ube Festivals, this one is free to the public, as well; for more information on vendors and happenings at the last Ube Festival, click here.
