Every year, ASA and KPL collaborate to host the AAPI Culture Night, a night that celebrates Asian culture. The event featured plenty of performers and unique activities for students to get involved.
The event
In the past, the ANA hosted the event as Asian Culture Night. However, due to Covid-19 and unstable leadership, the tradition that had been present since the 90s was briefly lost. Current ANA Treasurer, Em Ranalli, discussed this.
“When I joined [the] leadership board in the spring of 2022, a group of us had the idea of revitalizing the event, despite the fact we had no experience with Asian Culture Night,” Ranalli said. “We dug up old scripts and photos to see what it was like before and tried mimicking it.”
They successfully hosted a similar event that year, but there were plenty of mistakes and mess ups that simply could not have been predicted. This led to a complete overhaul in the style of event starting in 2023 when current President Ayumi Enorme was elected.
The name was changed to AAPI– Asian American and Pacific Islander– Culture Night to better represent more groups. The event was also modified to be more focused on students rather than outside groups, though plenty of external groups performed as well.
“We switched the name… to have a wider spread of representation in the performances and fashion show. We also added an art gallery this year to have another aspect of Asian culture representation,” Ranalli said.
Lots of planning and outreach went into this event, whether it was to find artists to show off their work at the gallery, gathering performers to show off their skills during the night or even catering from dining services to provide sushi and dumplings– among other things– the team took months to properly prepare for this event.
The AAPI Culture Night is a collaboration between the ASA and Kappa Phi Lambda, an Asian-interest sorority that was chartered at Wright State University in 2022. KPL has been sponsoring and supporting this event since then.
Overall, roughly 200 students attended– which was more than expected, as extra chairs had to be brought in. The food was also gone within a few hours. This event can definitely be counted as a success– and students are encouraged to attend more events hosted by the ASA and KPL!
The performers
There were multiple performers from a wide range of cultures; even the hosts participated in some dances of their own. The performances started with a special skit from the ASA leadership board before moving on to individual and group shows.
Neha Mali, a nursing major, performed a solo Newari dance. The Newar people are a distinct cultural and ethnic group in Nepal. She has been performing in events since she was young.
“I have been performing [for] a very long time, like when I was 10-11 years old. Also, I have gone to cultural beauty pageants in my home country Nepal. I did enjoy the program,” Mali said.
Professor Antoinette CHarfauros McDaniel did not perform, but she did give an informative speech and represented the Chamorro Association of the Midwest in it. This group is an advocate for sharing information on the Chamorro culture.
They were also present at last year’s Pacific Islander Heritage Celebration, and McDaniel was sure to provide detailed explanations about this indigenous group. She is an incredibly informed professor and sociologist, and students were able to learn a lot!
Two sisters from KPL, Evelyn Myers and Amanda Wirsch, performed a traditional Vietnamese fan dance. As members of the sorority that helped co-host, the two of them wanted to get even more involved by hosting a performance.
“I did fan dancing when I was very young, but hadn’t touched it in a while. In the month before, Evelyn [and I] learned a fan dance to perform. The fan dance performance has origins from Vietnamese culture, and I had a lot of fun performing it,” Wirsch said.
A new group to WSU was the Ohio Marshallese Community Dance Group. This group, based in Toledo, represents immigrants from the Marshall Islands, and they performed a fan dance as a way to share their culture with the university.
Ideally, there will be another event for this organization soon– Celina officials have approved an event to celebrate the Marshall Islands’ Constitution Day sometime in May, though the official day is May 1. This will be an excellent opportunity for students to get more involved with this culture!
Cincinnati-based K-Pop group Nif-D also performed during the event. While this group was established less than a year ago, they have already made their mark in Ohio by performing well choreographed songs at plenty of events.
Their next event is on April 26 at Asian Food Fest 2025. You can see some of their previous performances on their YouTube, and do not forget to visit their Instagram page for updates on future events.
Neha Pun performed a solo dance that incorporated an exciting mix of Nepali and Hindi music.
Au Lac is a Vietnamese lion dance team that also participated in the festivities. They were established in 2024 and had their first performance in April of the same year; now, in 2025, they visited WSU’s campus to show off their skills.
You can visit them on their Instagram; they are currently accepting bookings.
Finally, Khmmotion, a hip-hop dance group, performed to modern Khmer songs. Many of their performances use Khmer music and cultural aspects; the Khmer people are the largest ethnic group native to Cambodia.
These groups were absolutely excellent in performing for the students who attended, and cheers erupted after each and every spectacle.
What is ASA and KPL?
ASA, or the Asian Student Association, is a student-led organization at WSU that works to promote Asian cultures. In recent years, they have made efforts to support Pacific Islander cultures as well.
“Committed to spreading diversity across [WSU]'s campus, the Asian Student Association celebrates Pan-Asian cultures by hosting multicultural and inter-organizational events for the purposes of education, appreciation and fun,” ANA’s Engage page reads.
Events vary year by year, though there are some events that happen consistently, including AAPI Culture Night and Lunar New Year celebrations.
KPL, or Kappa Phi Lambda, is one of eight sororities available on WSU’s campus. While it is the most recent sorority to join our campus, they strive to support Asian groups in the area while doing charity work.
“We are an Asian-interest, but not Asian exclusive, sorority seeking to empower and encourage undergraduate women through sisterhood, service and cultural diversity. As the first multicultural sorority on campus, our members strive for academic excellence as well as providing services for our community through charity work. We stand to represent the underrepresented,” the KPL Engage page reads.
You can follow their Engage page and check them out on social media, especially their Instagram, to stay up-to-date on their activities and join them if you are interested.
AAPI Culture Night was a resounding success, and students can expect to see the event happen next year and the years after.
“We already booked the Apollo Room for AAPI Culture Night next year, and as long as ASA exists, I have a feeling so will our culture night,” Ranalli said.
