DeBartolo Performing Arts Center to host Juneteenth Celebration and Resource Fair Friday at Notre Dame
The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center (DPAC), in partnership with the Center for Social Concerns, will host a Juneteenth Celebration and Resource Fair from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Friday (June 14) on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.
The event, featuring locally owned businesses and nonprofit organizations, free food from local food trucks, music from Gino J of Mix 102.3 and giveaways, will take place outside the north entrance of DPAC, facing the DeBartolo Quad.
It is free and open to the public.
Now in its second year, the family-friendly event is designed to promote and support local businesses — including and especially Black-owned businesses — in conjunction with the federal Juneteenth holiday, which marks the end of slavery in the U.S. and falls on June 19 each year.
The event also offers members of the community the opportunity to explore campus via the newly established Arts Gateway — a collection of public-facing buildings, classrooms and outdoor spaces devoted to the visual and performing arts and architecture at Notre Dame.
And it marks the start of summer programming at DPAC, with a diverse lineup of performances and events including UZIMA! Drum and Dance Co.’s “Boundless: A Juneteenth Celebration” at 7 p.m. June 22.
According to Leigh Hayden, director of marketing and communications for DPAC, the event is part of DPAC’s mission to be “very visibly inclusive” with respect to both its programming and its approach to community engagement.
“With our location in the Notre Dame Arts Gateway and as part of an effort to bridge the gap between campus and community, the Juneteenth Celebration and Resource Fair is a way for us to bring additional visibility to Freedom Day and what it means to the African American community while adding to community celebrations,” said Hayden, who serves on DPAC’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Committee.
Regina Williams-Preston, community justice program director with the Center for Social Concerns, said, “The relationship building, collaboration and celebration that happens at events like this is important for the community justice work we do at the Center for Social Concerns.”
Jamie Mckinstry, owner of Jetta’s Sweet and Salty Kettle Corn in South Bend, is among the returning vendors.
“I have done several vending events with Notre Dame and all have been successful,” Mckinstry said.
She thanked Notre Dame for including the community in its Juneteenth celebrations, noting of the holiday itself, “Juneteenth has been so important to me because it has given me the right to be free and equal to every human being. We are free to learn and grow and become who we are meant to be.”
Also on Friday, University Enterprises and Events will host a Juneteenth Celebration Through Food from 2 to 3 p.m. at Legends of Notre Dame, featuring barbecue and guest speakers.
The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center is the University’s leading presenter of world-class artistic programming. It is also an academic space devoted to enhancing the scholarship, teaching and practice of the performing arts. And it is a community space that welcomes more than 100,000 patrons annually, including hundreds of K-12 students in education and related artistic programs.
For more information, visit performingarts.nd.edu.
Latest ND News Wire
- Santiago Schnell, dean of Notre Dame’s College of Science, appointed as provost of DartmouthSantiago Schnell, the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, has accepted an appointment as provost at Dartmouth College. He will depart Notre Dame at the end of June and begin his new role in July.
- The Commencement of the class of 2025The University of Notre Dame celebrated its 180th Commencement Ceremony on Sunday (May 18) at Notre Dame Stadium. An audience of some 20,000 graduates, family members, friends and faculty attended, and 2,084 degrees were conferred on undergraduate students, with a total of 3,099 degrees being conferred over the course of Commencement Weekend activities.
- The Commencement of the Graduate School class of 2025Teresa Lambe, a world-renowned vaccine scientist who played a critical role in the fight against COVID-19, delivered the keynote address Saturday (May 17) during the Graduate School’s annual commencement ceremony.
- Kenneth Scheve appointed dean of the University of Notre Dame’s College of Arts and LettersKenneth Scheve, the Dean Acheson Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs and the dean of social science at Yale University, has been appointed the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters by University of Notre Dame President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. Scheve, who will also hold a tenured faculty position in the Department of Political Science, begins a five-year term as dean on July 1.
- Notre Dame to convene government, industry and academic leaders to set regulatory roadmap for responsible social mediaTo address the challenges posed by social media use and its effects on democracy, the University of Notre Dame is hosting the Council for Responsible Social Media and Issue One on May 27-29. Led by Notre Dame’s Democracy Initiative, this National Convening on Social Media and Democracy will bring together leaders and scholars to discuss policy changes that set a serious national agenda for the next several years of governance on social media and technology, particularly as it relates to improving democratic outcomes.
- Notre Dame’s top research position endowed as John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for ResearchJeffrey F. Rhoads, who leads Notre Dame Research, including its efforts in innovation and commercialization through the IDEA Center, will now hold the title of John and Catherine Martin Family Vice President for Research.
