The San Francisco Bay Area is home to the 2nd largest Filipino population in the United States.  Soma Pilipinas, the Filipino cultural district recently designated by the City of San Francisco, is the heart of Filipino America in the Bay.  Last month, TFAL paid a visit to Soma Pilipinas to talk to some of the movers and shakers in the community.

In this first installment of interviews, we talk to Lily Prijoles, one of the co-owners of Arkipelago Bookstore.  We then interview Allan Manalo, a long-time community activist and co-founder of Bindlestiff Studio, the “epicenter of Filipino American performing arts.”  Listen as we discuss the history of these great institutions in the Bay Area, the future of SoMa Pilipinas in this age of gentrification, and of course, some NorCal-SoCal sports rivalry banter.

Listen through the embedded player below, download directly here or subscribe to us on iTunes here!