Umpukan Fil-Am History Month 2026 on Rhode Island Avenue

SAMASAMA and Kam & 46 are listing Umpukan, a Fil-Am History Month celebration, for Sunday, October 4, 2026, from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. at metrobar, 640 Rhode Island Avenue NE. The flyer and listing both say free and all ages. Guests under 21 need a parent or guardian. Optional donations during RSVP help sustain SAMASAMA's cultural programs. Eventbrite parking notes mark the block as paid street or lot parking, not a free civic lot.

This is the sixth year of Umpukan. Umpukan means gathering. SAMASAMA, Tagalog for "all together," started in Washington, D.C. in 2016 as a collective art show for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and now runs year-round diaspora programs. Kam & 46 is the culinary project of Vanessa and Elaine, two Fil-Ams cooking through Hawaiian and California childhood flavors; they also opened Small Kine at Union Market.

For Filipino American History Month 2026, FANHS National's theme is "Beyond the Margins: Centering Intersectional Filipino American Histories." The Umpukan listing quotes that frame and builds the afternoon around art, food, music, and local makers rather than a night-market vendor grid. The body still drops a leftover #FAHM2025 tag near the end. Treat the 2026 header and the FANHS 2026 theme as the lock.

Programming on the card includes tinikling lessons from Jamie, art-making with Julie and Joy, mini parol crafts with Reina of Ateh Kuya Creatives, a pop-up market, Menchie Caliboso on the decks, live music from Drew Kid, and OPM-plus sets with Les the DJ. Flyer art is credited to Kai's Kuties by Kaila Garcia with Julie and Les. That is a neighborhood hang with a craft table, not a Columbia Pike night market.

metrobar sits on the Rhode Island Avenue NE corridor near the Red Line's Rhode Island Avenue station. The block is a storefront and nightlife stretch, not the Mall and not a NoVA expo hall. Plan transit or paid parking, then give yourself a short walk.

Tambayan Sa Kanto is the later Chantilly Filipino street-food Saturday on October 24. Umpukan is the earlier in-city Sunday if you want Brookland and Northeast DC energy before the Daly Drive food lot.

Who this is for: D.C. Fil-Am families and friends who want a free five-hour gathering with art and music. Skip it if you needed a NoVA expo or a temple mela. Sterling and Greenbelt sit later on the calendar for those shapes.

Our take: noon if you want the full card, especially tinikling and the market tables. RSVP if you can spare a donation. Do not print 2025 except as leftover hashtag noise.

When: October 4, 2026 (noon–5 p.m.)
Where: metrobar, 640 Rhode Island Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002

Listing on Eventbrite.