Our crowdfunding campaign has ended but you can still support Samahang Pilipino by clicking here.
For the past four decades, Samahang Pilipino Cultural Night (SPCN) has raised awareness and appreciation for the Pilipinx and Pilipinx-American culture and experience in the UCLA community through a cast of over 200 UCLA students. With our stage production held in Royce Hall, SPCN focuses on educating both the cast members and audience about the Pilipinx and Pilipinx-American narratives through traditional folk dance performances alongside an original script and music.
SPCN engages students in the performing arts as an agency to learn about their identity and background, nurtures common grounds of understanding between Pilipinx and non-Pilipinx cultures and other communities of color, and conveys the importance of the preservation of history between generations.
This year, SPCN will highlight the disconnect Pilipinx-Americans experience with their culture, homeland, and family - as well as the economic instability and motivations that drive Pilipinxs overseas. This year also brings undocumented immigration to the forefront of the conversation. With over 300,000 undocumented Pilipinxs in the US, it is critical to educate and share the narratives of an overlooked and vulnerable part of our community as SPCN strives to provoke others to be critically aware and thoughtful about the history and current state of the Pilipinx and Pilipinx-American community.
As a completely student-led production, we depend heavily on UCLA funding sources but since our allocations from UCLA’s different funding bodies have decreased notably throughout the years, it has forced our members and committee to pay more out of pocket and to rely on fundraisers and sponsorships. Overall, our funding allocations decreased by almost half from 2017 to 2018, leaving us to fundraise over $10,000 outside of UCLA.
SPCN is an annual event that is completely free to all UCLA students and community members beyond UCLA. To make production possible, we seek financial support to cover the costs of admission along with the overall cost of the production itself. This includes the costs for supplies to create our props and costumes for each dance, specific costume rentals, printing, and the facilities and venue of Royce Hall. This production costs over $40,000, with Royce Hall itself costing over $28,000. We strive to keep this event free and accessible to all because we want to continue nurturing cultural awareness within and beyond the UCLA community this year and for years to come.
Budget Breakdown: How will your money be spent?
+ $2,500.00 for the Rondalla Club of Los Angeles to perform live, traditional Pilipino music for all traditional dances in SPCN means that the total cost of our show is $42,591.19!!
SPCN serves as an avenue to highlight the strength and resilience of the Pilipinx community. As the Pilipinx community in the United States continues to grow, the need for exposure, solidarity, and awareness of our community is vital for our living narratives, especially with the lack of substantial Pilipinx-concentrated studies or courses at UCLA. The rise in race-driven hate crimes and the hostile environment towards our undocumented community calls for a production like ours to highlight the stories of the oppressed, educating the audience at large about who these people at risk are and why their stories deserve to be told. Your donation allows us to tell our stories.
You are part of the roots (ugat) that build the foundation for our production and you will receive a digital thank you card from us via email.
With your donation, you will become a part of the strong family tree (puno) that grows from our production and will receive a handwritten thank you card and a sticker of this year's SPCN logo (a tax deductible donation of $23.50)
You, too, can be a part of SPCN, which serves as our Philippine home (kubo), with your generous donation and receive a sticker, an SPCN Cast T-shirt, and a special behind-the-scenes video! (a tax deductible donation of $42.50)
We welcome you into our one big family (kapamilya) at SPCN and will receive a shoutout on our social media sites and a 1 line acknowledgment in our show's program + a t-shirt and a sticker (a tax deductible donation of $67.50). All program shoutouts and pages of appreciation must be sent to ucla.spcn.aesthetics@gmail.com by April 17, 2019.
Be a part of our production and live (mabuhay) the SPCN experience with us through your donations, as you will be designated a spot for your business card on our show's program, 2 VIP tickets to our show + a t-shirt and a sticker (a tax deductible donation of $92.50). All program shoutouts and pages of appreciation must be sent to ucla.spcn.aesthetics@gmail.com by April 17, 2019.
Be one of our copper (tanso) donors and we will designate 1/4 of a page of appreciation for you or your loved one in our show's program + 2 VIP tickets, a t-shirt, and a sticker (a tax deductible donation of $142.50). All program shoutouts and pages of appreciation must be sent to ucla.spcn.aesthetics@gmail.com by April 17, 2019.
Help our production bloom like the Philippine flower (sampaguita) through your generous donation and we will designate 1/2 a page for you in our show's program + 4 VIP tickets, a t-shirt, and a sticker (a tax deductible donation of $242.50). All program shoutouts and pages of appreciation must be sent to ucla.spcn.aesthetics@gmail.com by April 17, 2019.
Be one of our silver (pilak) donors and you will receive a limited edition copy of our 1st ever SPCN album containing original songs from this year's show + all the perks from the previous tier (a tax deductible donation of $288.50). All program shoutouts and pages of appreciation must be sent to ucla.spcn.aesthetics@gmail.com by April 17, 2019.
Be one of our gold (ginto) donors and you will be designated a full page in our show's program + 6 VIP tickets, the exclusive SPCN album, a t-shirt, and a sticker (a tax deductible donation of $488.50). All program shoutouts and pages of appreciation must be sent to ucla.spcn.aesthetics@gmail.com by April 17, 2019.
Brown (kayumanggi) is beautiful and so are you for being one of the top supporters of our cultural production! You will be designated a full page in our show's program + 8 VIP tickets, the exclusive SPCN album, a t-shirt, and a sticker (a tax deductible donation of $988.50). All program shoutouts and pages of appreciation must be sent to ucla.spcn.aesthetics@gmail.com by April 17, 2019.