API Cultural Center- San Francisco

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API Cultural Center- San Francisco Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) supports and produces multi-disciplinary art reflective of the unique experiences of API's in the US.

🌱 Interested in applying for USAAF 2027? 🌱 Stop by one of our two virtual information sessions to talk with APICC staff ...
09/25/2026

🌱 Interested in applying for USAAF 2027? 🌱 Stop by one of our two virtual information sessions to talk with APICC staff about ideas, eligibility, and tips for refining your submission! Register to attend either (or both!) of these free, virtual information sessions using the link in our bio.

🌟 Info Session 1 - Tuesday, September 29 6-7PM🌟
🌟 Info Session 2 - Sunday, October 18 11AM-12PM🌟

Each year, USAAF presents multiple programs reflecting the artistic accomplishments and cultural diversity of San Francisco’s Pacific Islander and Asian American communities. USAAF showcases artists representing a diverse range of ethnic and cultural groups and aims to heighten the visibility of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) artists working in all disciplines - theater, music, dance, film, literature, visual arts, and more! Our goal is to nurture and empower these groups to be self-sufficient while providing the support they need to grow.

⏰ Applications for USAAF 2027 due October 23
🌟 Link in Bio to Apply and to register for info sessions!

// photo: APICC staff members Vinay Patel, Melanie & Winnie Elvena, Piper Cruze Prolago, and TJ Basa at the opening reception for Lineages of Organizing: APICC at 30 for USAAF 2026. Photo by Higate Media. //

🌱 The time is now! 🌱 Applications are OPEN for our 30th annual United States of Asian America. This year’s theme, TAKING...
09/19/2026

🌱 The time is now! 🌱 Applications are OPEN for our 30th annual United States of Asian America. This year’s theme, TAKING ROOT, invites us to reflect on the conditions that our communities need to prosper. To take root is an active process of insisting on forging pathways and building strong foundations for sustainable futures. This not only means cultivating safe spaces to call home, but also building networks, relationships, and ecosystems that make this possible. The festival will explore how we can nurture these connections with each other and with the land.

⭐ Grants of $3,000-$5,000 will support artist-produced events taking place in San Francisco between May - June 13, 2027
⭐ Grants of $1,000 for our showcase performance at our new APICC x KULARTS building in May or June 2027
⭐ Link in bio to learn more about eligibility and how to apply!

⏰ SUBMIT BY October 23 AT 11:59PM ⏰

// Sunset Night Market Outdoor Showcase performance “For the Culture” with Danielle Galvez, Gladys Liu, and Alice Hur (L to R). Photo by Higate Media//

🌱 Have an idea TAKING ROOT for an event next year? 🌱 we're so excited to announce the theme for the 2027 United States o...
09/08/2026

🌱 Have an idea TAKING ROOT for an event next year? 🌱 we're so excited to announce the theme for the 2027 United States of Asian America......

Each year, USAAF presents multiple programs reflecting the artistic accomplishments and cultural diversity of San Francisco’s Pacific Islander and Asian American communities. USAAF showcases artists representing a diverse range of ethnic and cultural groups and aims to heighten the visibility of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) artists working in all disciplines - theater, music, dance, film, literature, visual arts, and more! Our goal is to nurture and empower these groups to be self-sufficient while providing the support they need to grow.

This year’s theme, TAKING ROOT, invites us to reflect on the conditions that our communities need to prosper. To take root is an active process of insisting on forging pathways and building strong foundations for sustainable futures. This not only means cultivating safe spaces to call home, but also building networks, relationships, and ecosystems that make this possible. The festival will explore how we can nurture these connections with each other and with the land.

Here are some prompts that artists should address in their proposals:
🌱 How can we create practices of stewardship that sustain both our API communities and the environments that we move through?
🌱 How do API artists and cultural creators use artmaking projects to forge sustainable relationships with the land that are informed by experiences of immigration, displacement, and diaspora?
🌱 How can arts and culture enact systems for sharing resources with one another? In what ways can we leverage this foundation to imagine alternative futures together?

Applications for funding will be released soon, so stay tuned...

//photo by Higate Media of Karl Evangelista performing for the closing of "Lineages of Organizing: APICC at 30" for USAAF 2026: Common Ground//

📣 Join AAWAA (AAWAA) for its first Universal Leadership Workshop - Pitfall #1 People Pleasing 📅 July 20 @ 7:00-8:30PM P...
07/16/2026

📣 Join AAWAA (AAWAA) for its first Universal Leadership Workshop - Pitfall #1 People Pleasing

📅 July 20 @ 7:00-8:30PM PT, Online via Zoom
🙋‍♀️ Open to AAPI women and gender expansive folks
🎟️ $20 - AAWAA Members, $25 - Non-Members
🔗 aawaa.net

Discover powerful boundary-setting tools that shift you from prioritizing harmony at the expense of honesty toward grounded, genuine leadership. Facilitated by certified leadership coach and artist, Cat Gutierrez (Catherine Gutierrez).

This workshop is part of the new Universal Leadership Workshop series, offering transformative sessions designed to strengthen your self-trust, deepen your authentic connections, and amplify your influence as a leader in the community.

07/08/2026

We closed out the United States of Asian America Festival 2026 with an unforgettable evening at the Sunset Night Market. 🌅✨

Thank you to For the Culture with Alice Hur, Danielle Galvez, and Gladys Liu and Nu Tekno with Yuka and Al Yu for bringing incredible performances to APICC’s Outdoor Showcase in partnership with the Sunset Night Market. It was a joyful celebration of music, community, and the many ways API artists continue to shape our cultural landscape.

As this year’s festival comes to a close, we’re grateful to every artist, partner, volunteer, and audience member who made these weeks so special. Until next year. 💛

Video by Higate Media

06/23/2026

Last month we closed out a beautiful show curated by the one and only Colin Choy Kimzey: “Lineages of Organizing: APICC at 30” at SOMArts Cultural Center. We celebrated the end of this show with amazing performances by Amihan and Karl Evangelista with an art market!

Didn’t get a chance to catch “Lineages of Organizing: APICC at 30” last month? Don’t worry - the virtual tour of the show is NOW AVAILABLE!!

http://somarts.org/exhibition/lineagesoforganizing/

✨Thank you to our lovely performers ✨amihan✨ Karl Alfonso Defensor Evangelista
✨ Check out the art market vendors here SOUR SOUP SOCIETY Agawidka Storytellers || ᜀᜄᜏᜒᜇ᜔ᜃ REALSOUL Ancestral Dreams Collective

// Video by Higate Media [ 𝚑𝚒𝚐𝚊𝚝𝚎 ], 𝚄𝚂𝙰. | 𝚅𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚑𝚢 | 𝙿𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚑𝚢 | 𝙰𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚘 | 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐], 𝚄𝚂𝙰. | 𝚅𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚑𝚢 | 𝙿𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚑𝚢 | 𝙰𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚘 | 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 //

Check out APICC’s outdoor showcase at Sunset Night Market to see amazing performances by Alice Hur, DJ Yuka Yu, and NuTe...
05/28/2026

Check out APICC’s outdoor showcase at Sunset Night Market to see amazing performances by Alice Hur, DJ Yuka Yu, and NuTekno!

⭐ Alice Hur’s “For the Culture” is a 15-minute street dance performance featuring three women Asian American artists from the Bay Area street dance scene. This work explores cultural expectations amongst the AAPI diaspora and how individual stories of love, collectivism, and familial duty map onto our experiences as stewards and organizers within the common, multicultural ground of street dance. Drawing on art forms such as waacking, krump, and locking, and house, “For the Culture” probes complex Asian American family dynamics and examines how these dynamics are both reflected in and reimagined within other spaces of collectivist care. Featuring Alice Hur, Danielle Galvez, and Gladys Liu.

⭐ Nu Tekno will have a musical performance with a DJ, digeridoo and Di Zhi (Chinese flute), and visual art playing on a screen in the background, exploring a blend of Western and Eastern culture. Yuka Yu will DJ and play the Chinese flute and AL Yu will play the digeridoo. The visual art was created by Yuka Yu and showcased at the Asian Art Museum in April 2025 during her DJ performance at Yuan Goang-Ming’s Everyday War exhibition’s public opening. Yuan Goang-Ming is Taiwan’s leading video artist.

📅 Friday, June 12
⏰ Performances at 8PM and 9PM
📍 Sunset Night Market 2101 Irving Street
💫 More info at https://sunsetmercantilesf.com/sunsetnightmarket2026/

Join us for the exhibition closing of Lineages of Organizing: The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center at 30, curated ...
05/23/2026

Join us for the exhibition closing of Lineages of Organizing: The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center at 30, curated by Colin Choy Kimzey. This event marks the celebration of three decades of cultural resilience and community organizing by APICC, showcasing the rich heritage and contributions of the Asian Pacific Islander community.

We'll have a small market of art vendors including.....
💫 sour soup society
💫 Agawidka
💫 REALSOUL
💫 Ancestral Dreams Collective

📆 Sunday, May 24
⏰ 1-3PM
📍 SOMArts Cultural Center
🌟 Performances by jazz musician Karl Evangelista and poet Amihan

Learn more about other events in this year's United States of Asian America Festival on APICC's website (Link in Bio)

Join us for the exhibition closing of Lineages of Organizing: The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center at 30, curated ...
05/22/2026

Join us for the exhibition closing of Lineages of Organizing: The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center at 30, curated by Colin Choy Kimzey. This event marks the celebration of three decades of cultural resilience and community organizing by APICC, showcasing the rich heritage and contributions of the Asian Pacific Islander community.

🌟 Featuring performances by Amihan and Karl Evangelista! 🌟

Amihan is a q***r Pinay cultural worker--self-taught musician, poet/rapper and vocalist--born and raised in the City, reppin the Excelsior. Named after the peasant women organization AMIHAN in the Philippines and raised through community activism in San Francisco, her music is rooted in her people's struggle for land and liberation. She is a part of the anti-imperialist Pinay organization GABRIELA Excelsior as well as cultural groups Diwa & Diwata amplifying the movement for national democracy in the homeland.

Filipino-American guitarist/composer Karl Evangelista (b.1986) ranks among the vanguard of musicians pushing the traditions of jazz and experimental music into the future. Synthesizing the heavy legacy of contemporary improvised music with popular song and 20th century composition, Evangelista explores multicultural concepts with sonic intensity and political fervor.

📆 Sunday, May 24
⏰ 1-3PM
📍 SOMArts Cultural Center
🌟 Performances by jazz musician Karl Evangelista and poet Amihan
💫 Learn more about other events in this year's United States of Asian America Festival on APICC's website (Link in Bio) 💫

Asian American Theater Company became a pioneering home for experimental Asian American performance and helped lay the i...
05/20/2026

Asian American Theater Company became a pioneering home for experimental Asian American performance and helped lay the institutional foundation for the creation of Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.

🌟 Spotlight on AATC 🌟

In 1973, the American Conservatory Theater sponsored playwright Frank Chin (whose Chickencoop Chinaman had just become the play first written by an Asian American to have a major New York production) to start an Asian American Theatre Workshop. Within two years, the workshop graduated from the ACT’s donated rehearsal space, moved into a building in the Richmond District, and became a professional theater company.

AATC opened its 1989 season in a new home, a three-story building with multiple performance spaces at Clement and Arguello, only to close for a year due to damage from the Loma Prieta Earthquake. The costs of repairs and the loss of NEA funding forced the theater company to downsize to offices in the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California in 1996.

That same year, AATC co-founded the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, pooling its resources with its peer organizations. This has allowed AATC’s mission to outlive it, passing the baton to APICC to serve as a home for Asian American theater and performing arts.

💫 Learn more at the "Lineages of Organizing: APICC at 30" exhibit at SOMArts Cultural Center curated by Colin Choy Kimzey. Join the closing ceremony on SUNDAY, MAY 24 from 1-3PM with a makers market and performances by jazz musician Karl Evangelista and poet Amihan! 💫

// Photo by Bob Hsiang of F.O.B. (1982) and Dance and the Railroad David Henry Hwang (1983) by David Henry Hwang (1982) //

Address

934 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA
94103

Telephone

+14158299467

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