UCLA Nikkei Student Union's 36th Annual Cultural Night

Hi everyone! First off, thank you so much for checking out our project! We are the team working behind the scenes of UCLA Nikkei Student Union's (NSU) 36th Annual Cultural Night, Seishin, and we can't wait to share our show with all of you. For us, Cultural Night (CN) has played a monumental role in our college experiences, and we are so honored to be able to continue this annual tradition. NSU's CN provides students with a wide variety of opportunities to get involved and showcase their talents, and we can't wait to put on a great show for everyone. 

Cultural Night (CN) is our largest event of the year, usually drawing in an audience of over 1,000 students, staff, alumni, and community members. CN began back in February of 1986 with the Week of Remembrance, an on-campus event created to commemorate the signing of Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the unlawful incarceration of over 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. Since then, CN has evolved as a way to showcase talented performers and feature culture, experiences, and issues that are relevant to the Japanese-American community. This year, our show will be held on February 19, 2022 from 7:00-9:30 PM in UCLA’s very own Royce Hall. The production will feature performances from NSU Odori, NSU Modern, Kyodo Taiko, and our very own drama cast. 

In the past, our drama performances have covered topics such as gentrification, mental health, and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. This year, Seishin, meaning spirit, will focus on the Asian-American identity and its impact on various generations. Through the perspective of two UCLA students, one based in the present day and the other based in the 1980s, these two stories will come together in an unexpected yet valuable way. While we felt it was important to address the significance of the Asian-American experience and how these experiences have shaped each generation’s perspectives, we also hope to shed light on the prevalent notion that history tends to repeat itself.

Given that this production will be our first one back in person since the pandemic shut down all UCLA classes and activities, we hope that our production will help to create the sense of community among UCLA students, faculty, staff, and families of students that many felt has been lacking in the past year and a half. Filled with passion, music, and a total celebration of culture, we hope that this production can foster a sense of community and bring happiness and excitement to all!

As a student-run organization, we rely heavily on outside funding sources to make CN possible. We seek funds through various avenues such as applying for grants and funding through UCLA, as well as seeking out sponsorships from local businesses and organizations. 

Traditionally, NSU’s CN has always been free and open to the public. We would love to keep our show accessible and welcoming for all, but in order to do that, we need enough funding to cover the costs. While we are actively pursuing various funding opportunities, CN can still be very expensive. As a result, we are reaching out to you to help us reach our goal! Our goal is to raise $5,000, which would be used towards the following areas:

Our costs are always increasing due to higher participation rates and raised venue costs, so any amount that you’re able to donate can help us fund this program! If monetary donations are not possible at this time, there are other ways you can show your support! We would love to spread the word across as many networks as possible. If you could simply share the SPARK campaign link on social media or via email, that would greatly help us as well. 

It is important to note that Covid-19 has undoubtedly made the production of our Cultural Night difficult and there is a level of uncertainty that we are dealing with. However, we, along with our production team at Royce Hall are extremely hopeful and optimistic that Covid-19 conditions will continue to improve in the coming weeks. As such, we are proceeding with raising funding for the production that we have been hard at work on for the past eight months! 

CN has been a unique opportunity for us as students. From being able to perform in the historic Royce Hall in front of 1,000 people to working behind the scenes on producing such a large-scale program, we have been able to make countless memories with CN. As a show that centers around Japanese-American history, cultural identity, and experience, we strongly value the power that our program has and the significance that it holds within our communities, for both our audience and student groups. Our SPARK campaigns from previous years have enabled us to continue putting on CN year after year, and after 35 years of successful productions, we deeply understand the importance of continuing this tradition. With your help, we would love to make our 36th production one of our best shows yet! 

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