Filipino Culture Night reaches beyond campus

Senior Dorrie Blando decided she would go to a Filipino Student Association meeting with a friend to see what it was all about. Two years and countless friendships later, she’s helping the association bring cultural awareness to Bloomington as the organization’s president.

“Running On... Filipino Time, A Filipino Cultural Night” will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Leo R. Dowling International Center and is presented by the Filipino Student Association. The event includes performances followed by a dinner of traditional Filipino foods. Admission to the event is free, and dinner is five dollars per plate.

“We wanted to show Filipino talent is everywhere in the U.S.,” Blando said.
Performances include yo-yo artist and Ball State student Noel Kunz and singer and songwriter Melissa Polinar from Texas.

Members of the Filipino Student Association saw both performers at the Filipino Americans Coming Together conference in October 2008, and the association’s Vice President of Internal Affairs Marisa Santiago said the board really liked both performers and invited them to perform at the cultural night.

Additional performers include singers and association members who will perform two cultural dances. Santiago said the group has practiced the dances for about a month and half and used conferences such as Filipino Americans Coming Together and videos from YouTube to help learn the routines.

To expand the cultural night beyond campus, the association invited Filipino students from other colleges to attend the event and network with other students.

“The mission is to open everybody’s eyes to the culture,” Santiago said.

Blando said the dinner is a mixture of the favorite foods of association members and what they usually eat when they visit home.

Trisha Castor, the association’s secretary, said her mother owns a Filipino restaurant and grocery store in her hometown of Hobart, Ind., and offered to cater the event. She said foods such as a rice noodle dish and chicken adobo are well-known in the Philippines. The dinner also includes two types of dessert, including suman, a sticky rice dish.

Blando said the association’s goal is to showcase its culture to people who are not Filipino and bring awareness to the Bloomington community.

Castor said the event would spread the Filipino culture to students and student organizations as well as the community. Blando said the international center is a great location because it is on campus and easy for students to reach.

Castor said she encourages people who don’t know about Filipino culture and want to explore something out of their comfort zone to come to the event and learn more.
“I appreciate my culture more now,” she said.