The University of Notre Dame will host Walk the Walk Week in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day from Jan. 19 (Saturday) to Jan. 26 (Saturday), with events including a prayer service, lectures, a musical performance and a celebration luncheon with accompanying panel discussion.
Now in its fourth year, Walk the Walk Week offers students, faculty, staff and the community at large the opportunity to celebrate the diversity that exists on campus and to reflect on ways to make Notre Dame even more welcoming and inclusive.
This year’s celebration will commence with a Candlelight Prayer Service at 11 p.m. Jan. 20 (Sunday) in the Main Building Rotunda. Notre Dame President Rev. John. I. Jenkins, C.S.C., will preside over the service, which is open to the public. A complimentary late-night breakfast will be served afterward in South Dining Hall.
On Jan. 21 (Monday), Martin Luther King Jr. Day, students, faculty and staff are invited to an MLK Celebration Luncheon and accompanying panel discussion at 11:30 a.m. in the North Dome of the Joyce Center. The event is free but ticketed. Department heads will provide information about ticket distribution to faculty and staff. Student tickets will be available at the LaFortune Box Office. There will be shuttles for transportation to and from the luncheon.
Titled “A Call to Love: Bridging the Racial Divide,” the panel discussion will feature seven members of the Notre Dame community: Jennifer Mason McAward, director of the Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights and associate professor of law; Rev. Pete McCormick, C.S.C., director of Campus Ministry; Ernest Morrell, director of the Center for Literacy Education and Coyle Professor of Literacy Education; Alyssa Ngo, class of 2019; Rev. Hugh Page Jr., vice president, associate provost, dean of first year of studies and professor of theology and Africana studies; Maria Tomasula, Michael P. Grace Professor of Art; and Cameasha Turner, doctor of jurisprudence, third year. The panelists will discuss the recent inclusive campus student survey, among other topics.
Classes will be canceled midday Monday to allow students, faculty and staff to attend the luncheon. Those who cannot attend the luncheon are invited to gather in the dining halls for community building. Lunch in the dining halls will be complimentary from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with a Notre Dame ID.
The full schedule of events is as follows:
All week
• Exhibit: Civil Rights Photography, Snite Museum of Art.
• Art Walk, Duncan Student Center.
Jan. 19 (Saturday)
• UZIMA! African Drumming and Dance, 7:30 p.m., DeBartolo Performing Arts Center (ticketed event).
Jan. 20 (Sunday)
• Candlelight Prayer Service, 11 p.m., Main Building Rotunda. Breakfast to follow at South Dining Hall.
Jan. 21 (Monday)
• MLK Celebration Luncheon, 11:30 a.m., Joyce Center North Dome (free but ticketed).
• Community Building Lunches, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., campus dining halls (free with Notre Dame ID).
• An Evening with Opal Tometi, co-founder of Black Lives Matter (professional development session for faculty and staff), 4 p.m., Montgomery Auditorium, LaFortune Student Center.
• “American Identity Crisis? The Current State of Racial and Ethnic Relations in the U.S,” 5 p.m., 1030 Jenkins Nanovic Halls.
• Lecture featuring Opal Tometi, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, 7 p.m., 102 DeBartolo Hall.
Jan. 22 (Tuesday)
• “Dome-ish” Episode 3: “Identity Crisis,” 5:30 p.m., Montgomery Auditorium, LaFortune Student Center.
• “Conversations that Matter: Another Narrative about What’s Happening at Our Southern Border,” 7 p.m., Coleman-Morse Lounge.
Jan. 23 (Wednesday)
• Social Concerns Fair, 6 p.m., Dahnke Ballroom, Duncan Student Center.
• Artist reception: Juan Sanchez, “Prevalence: Sacred Traces,” 7 p.m., 106 Duncan Student Center.
Jan. 24 (Thursday)
• Unity Summit, 9 a.m., Monogram Room, Joyce Center.
• Mass for Peace and Unity, 5:15 p.m., Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
• “‘What Sport do you Play?’: A Discussion on Race, Athletics and Educational Access,” 6 p.m., Remick Commons Visitation Hall.
• Artist reception: Ralph Helmick, “Edifice,” 7 p.m., 210 Duncan Student Center.
Jan. 25 (Friday)
• “Confronting Whiteness at Notre Dame: Power, Identity and Exclusion,” 4 p.m., Hesburgh Center for International Studies Auditorium.
For more information, visit https://diversity.nd.edu/mlk.
Contact: Erin Blasko, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu