Kultura Pilipinas, the official Filipino student organization at the University of Oregon, recently hosted an event called Fil-Am Showtime in Historic FilipinoTown on Sunday, Nov. 17. The event is a fall showcase where students within the club performed cultural dances and prizes are raffled off for guests and club members. Fil-Am Showtime, their second biggest event of the year, is dedicated to giving all students the opportunity to learn more about Filipino American culture from Filipino American students. The event highlights the struggles and successes of Filipinos as they immigrated to the United States and the types of settlements that they set up for future communities.
“This event is a way to bring together our community and also to showcase the talents of our members to the greater University of Oregon community,” Zoë Tandingan, co-event coordinator for Kultura Pilipinas, said. “We also invite other student organizations to participate in order to bring more exposure to our club as well as other student-led groups on campus!”
Fil-Am Showtime has been a part of Kultura Pilipinas since the club’s first performance on campus in 1986. As their main showcase event, the event offers the opportunity for students to demonstrate and/or learn culturally significant dances as well as learn more about the Kabataan Alliance, a fundraising partnership that made an appearance at this event
Kabataan Alliance’s Kapit Bisig fundraiser directly assists typhoon relief efforts in the homeland. “We encourage all guests to check it out while they learn how to dance for Tinikling, the Philippines’ national folk dance,” Izzy Chew, co-director for Kultura Pilipinas, said.
Fil-Am Showtime serves as a homecoming for KP and its presence on campus as an Asian American organization. This culmination of their six weeks of hard work was dedicated to giving Filipino American students a platform to embrace their culture, donate time, money and resources to their favorite causes, and participate in something they may never have been a part of before.
“The theme for this event was Historic FilipinoTown and Filipino Communities. ‘Itik’ means duck, so Itik-Itik is the duck duck dance, which I thought was fitting to tie into the theme of our Oregon community as well as highlight KPUO as its own Filipino community,” Tandingan said. “It was also my favorite part of the event because I choreographed it this year.”
KP typically hosts another large event called PCN, or Pilipino Culture Night, which will be held in May of 2025 during week 6. Although there is no specified date just yet, this is the biggest event that KP hosts during the year. This event will typically host around 300 people, with many other student groups participating. It involves more cultural activities, mainly dances that club members choreograph and participate in, and there is usually one headliner performance. If you missed out on Fil-Am Showtime, PCN is something to look forward to during spring term.
For those looking to get involved, KP meets on Mondays in the Multicultural Center from 6-7 and can be found on Instagram @uokulturapilipinas ”You should stop by, even if you’re not Filipino, to have fun, meet new people and learn about Filipino culture!” Hannah Vo-Tran, co-director for Kultura Pilipinas, said.
