43rd Samahang Pilipino Cultural Night

For the past four decades, Samahang Pilipino Cultural Night (SPCN) raises awareness and appreciation for the Pilipinx and Pilipinx-American culture and experience with 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 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 (from grants and donations) to cover the costs. 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. 

Here's a breakdown of what your donation goes toward:

To give you an idea of how much our show costs, Royce Hall costs ~$28,000 to rent, supplies for our dance suites cost ~$6,000, and other expenses for programs, such as video, photography, and live traditional music by the Rondolla Club of Los Angeles costs another ~$10,000. That is a grand total of $46,960. 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 forces 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 2018 to 2019, leaving us to fundraise over $10,000 outside of UCLA! With your generous donation, we can continue this legacy of showcasing Pilipinx and Pilipinx American culture to the community at large.

SPCN engages students in the performing arts as a platform to learn about their identity and background, nurtures common ground 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 historical significance of the International Hotel, also known as the I-Hotel, in the 1960s, as well as the economic instability and motivations that drive Pilipinx overseas. With about 3.4 million Pilipinx Americans in the U.S., it is critical to educate and share the narratives of an overlooked and vulnerable part of our community as SPCN strives to inspire others to be critically aware of the history and current state of the Pilipinx and Pilipinx-American community.

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.