45th 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 interwoven between an original script and music.

With SPCN being a completely free and a fully student-led annual production for UCLA students and community members beyond UCLA, we heavily rely on UCLA funding sources. However, to make the production possible, we seek financial support (from grants and donations) to cover the rest of the costs. We strive to keep this event free and accessible to all because we want to continue telling our stories and the importance of our cultural experiences within and beyond the UCLA community. 

Here is a breakdown of what your donation helps go towards: 

To give an idea of how much it costs to make this show happen, Royce Hall costs ~ $34,000 to rent, supplies for our dance suites and production cost ~ $6,000, and other expenses for programs, such as video, photography, and live traditional music by the Rondolla Club of Los Angeles cost another ~$11,000. All in all, this comes out to a grand total of $51,015. Insufficient funding allocations and the lack of fundraising opportunities during the pandemic has forced cast and committee members to pay more out-of-pocket, leading us to rely more heavily on sponsorships and current fundraisers to help offset the cost of the production. This leaves us to raise over $10,000 outside of UCLA! With your help and generous donation, we are able to keep SPCN alive as we continue sharing this tradition of expressing Pilipinx and Pilipinx American culture to the entire community. 

Samahang Pilipino Cultural Night allows students to become more involved to learn about their identity and background through performing arts, creating a platform for them to express their dedication and culture which sets a common ground of understanding between Pilipinx and non-Pilipinx cultures and other communities of color. Annually, we yearn to be critically aware about our history and its importance to keep it alive, which SPCN helps us achieve.

This year’s SPCN is based on a forgotten Pilipinx folklore of how fireflies came to be. While at its surface the story is about the origin of fireflies in the Philippines, our story touches on concepts that are important to Pilipinx-American experiences such as not knowing our true place between two “worlds” and dealing with the weight of expectations instilled upon us. On top of that, choosing a folklore is significant, as these stories are usually passed down verbally, and culturally, the Pilipinos are well known to be master orators. These folkores have existed before colonization took place, and therefore bring to light traditional values and beliefs of a Philippines untouched by foreign influences. We believe this is a preservation of an essential history that allows us to learn and emphasize the culture that we continually grow upon.

With this year’s cultural night being the first in person show since 2019 due to the pandemic, we are very thrilled to bring everyone back together once again to highlight the strength and resilience of the Pilipinx community. Making this return to Royce Hall is very exciting for all of us, as we have been working hard to put on a show dedicated to telling the Pilipinx narrative, signifying endless love and passion for the community, especially after two years away from campus. We are very excited to host this production on May 21, 2022.

Pilipino Cultural Nights are what help raise awareness and appreciation for the Pilipinx and Pilipinx-American culture and experience. Productions like these give students like us the opportunity to explore their heritage while helping educate the audience on a larger scale on the importance of keeping stories alive, to continue on the legacy and traditions that arise from it.  Your donation allows us to keep this production alive.

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