Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park
2024 Opening Date Saturday May 4th
FEATURED IN
Hello. ChomReap Sur. Sabaidee. Sawatdee. Xin Chào. Salam.
The Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park is a community of refugees and immigrant members who have called the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Park their home since the 1980’s. For 35+ years they have cultivated an open community space all their own, providing a cultural hub for social gatherings, sharing of ethnic cuisines and business opportunities through vending.
A unique market.
Our vending community has blossomed from the original Lao and Khmer sellers, expanding to Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian vendors -- each a part of the Southeast Asian refugee and immigrant narrative of Philadelphia, having found a haven in FDR Park. Here you can enjoy many native cuisine dishes, culturally specific produce, plants, clothing and jewelry, as well as services provided by entrepreneurs speaking multiple languages.
A community space.
2020’s Covid pandemic realized a need to come together more than ever, and the Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park provided a safe outdoor space for those moments. The 2021 Rally Against Anti-Asian Hate and March as well as back-to-school supply giveaways, bilingual voter registration and deportation information sessions with partnering community organizations proved the Market was more than just a place to buy things, it was a sanctuary in and of itself.
Meet Our Vendors
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Meet Our Vendors 〰️
You’ve probably tasted their foods, asked them questions about what they’re selling at the Market, perhaps you’ve even seen them in the neighborhood too, but you don’t know them the way we know them. Meet our vendors - some whom have been selling since before our market was a market.
“I hope that when people think about the Southeast Asian Market, that it becomes one of those landmarks - ‘I’m going to visit Philadelphia, I’m going to get a cheesesteak, I’m going to take a picture of the Rocky steps, and then I’m going to go to the Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park.’”
— Catzie Vilayphonh, Southeast Asian Outreach Network Community Cultivator