President’s address

Good evening my Barkada members! Welcome to Barkada’s 30th annual Pilipinx American Culture Night! My name is Neil Medrano and I am glad and honored to be working as Barkada’s president on the 2019-2020 Barkada’s Executive Board. President’s Address

Tonight’s Pilipinx American Culture Night marks the 30th year we have done this event. Three decades of Barkada members both new and old, celebrating and remembering the dances of our ancestors and bringing issues of what is going on in the Pilipinx-American community as we stand today. Every year is different. A different story, a different collection of dances, and even times where we add new suites or a new form of dance comes in. Even though each is different, all of Barkada’s culture nights come for the sole purpose of what is said, and tonight’s play “Kailangan Kita” is just as special as the past 29.

Although I say tonight is special, I did not expect this kind of special. COVID-19, also known as Coronavirus, and the aftereffects of the spread has caused the circumstances to where we are today. As of today, this is the first ever virtual PACN the club has ever held. Nothing is ever as euphoric and as memorable as the joys of a physical PACN, but I want you all to be acknowledged for the hard work you all put in. I want to thank everyone, the members, who came to practices, the coordinators, who put in even more work coordinating the dances, the committees, who put in the work behind the scenes, and my Bougi-E Board, especially Alexa and Jazzerine, for they have spent the longest time out of all this, planning since the start. COVID-19 has broken us down, but Barkada will rise together stronger than ever.

Kailangan Kita has themes of hope and the future in its play. As times are tough right now, I wish you all hope. With this program, and our alternative to PACN, we strive to let none of our work not go unnoticed. We strive to let our ancestors and their culture not go unnoticed. We strive to let our future culture nights shine even brighter for the darker times we have to go through.

Thank you everyone for attending our practices and making it to this point. Hope everyone home is staying safe and enjoying a Bougi-E quarantine. Until next time.

Neil Terrel Medrano