Black Domers: The Future of Social Justice

Experience the Event

Presented by

Thursday, February 8, 2024 7:00 pm

“Recent events in our nation have led to a national reckoning, to soul-searching and a demand for action with regard to racial and social injustice…There is a widespread sense of urgency to come together, to take meaningful action to achieve a more just and equitable society. Accompanying the urgency is a sense of hope that now is the moment for constructive and lasting change.” – Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Notre Dame: A Strategic Framework, June 2021

As our nation continues to face urgent calls for racial justice, many members of the Notre Dame family are seeking safe spaces for honest dialogue that can advance understanding and become a foundation for action. It is in that spirit that the Black Alumni of Notre Dame and ThinkND invite you to join us for the second season of Black Domers. We’ll explore experiences of Black alumni and students, imagine the future of social justice, convene Black entrepreneurial and business trailblazers, nurture Black well-being, and cultivate Black spirituality. All are welcome!

Join filmmaker Christine Swanson ‘94 and Academy Award nominated actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor for a screening and discussion of Swanson’s 2022 short film Fannie, moderated by Scott Barton, assistant professor of race, food, environmental & cultural studies in the department of Africana Studies and inaugural Fellow in Notre Dame’s Initiative for Race and Resilience.

Considered the midwife of the modern American Democratic Party, Mississippi civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer gives her impassioned testimony and a prophetic warning to the country. Fannie is a riveting portrait of the human rights, voting rights, and civil rights icon and her ground-breaking speech in front of the Democratic National Convention’s credentials committee on August 22, 1964.

Moderator:

• Scott Barton

Speakers:

• Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
• Christine Swanson ’94

Meet the Faculty: Scott Barton

Scott Alves Barton is a Cultural Anthropologist of African Diaspora Foodways at Notre Dame, and previously was an executive chef for over 25 years. Scott’s research focuses on Diaspora women’s work and knowledge, intergenerational teaching/learning, cultural heritage, and political resistance in Northeastern Brazil. Scott is a public scholar at Lynden Sculpture Garden. He serves as co-chair of African Diaspora Religions in the American Academy of Religion, a Trustee of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, and Board Member of the Association for the Study of Food and Society, and an Advisory Board Member for Indigo Arts Alliance. His forthcoming manuscript, Reckoning with Violence and Black Death follows his exhibition on Anti-Black violence, funerary foods and ancestrality, Buried in the Heart.

Meet the Speaker: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

Oscar-nominated actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor was born in San Francisco, California. She graduated from Brown University and later attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

During her career, Ellis performed on Off-Broadway theater, appeared in many films, and had roles on television. In film, she is best known for her roles in Men of Honor (2000), Undercover Brother (2002), Ray (2004), and The Help (2011). On television, Ellis had her most significant role on the 2015 mini-series, The Book of Negroes.

Most recently, Ellis was featured in HBO’s Love Craft Country (2020), The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel (2020), directed by Christine Swanson ’94, King Richard (2022) where she was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance as Serena and Venus Williams’ mother, Oracene “Brandy” Williams, and The Color Purple (2023). 

Meet the Speaker: Christine Swanson '94

A visionary storyteller from Detroit, multiple award-winning director Christine Swanson ’94 earned her MFA in Film from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, one of the nation’s top-ranked graduate film programs. Christine earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame, double majoring in Film Theory and Japanese. She was chosen by the Notre Dame Alumni Association as The Rev. Arthur S. Harvey Award recipient, acknowledging her achievements in the arts.

Christine has developed, written and/or directed entertainment projects for HBO Films, Lionsgate, Universal Television, Warner Bros. Television, CBS Television Studios, TV One, A&E Networks, BET Films, Starz and Faith Filmworks.

Christine’s movie directing credits include the network and cable television records breaking The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel, starring Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis. The film won “Best TV Movie” from the African American Film Critics Association and the Satellite TV Award for “Best Television Movie.” The film was nominated for five NAACP Image Awards including “Outstanding Directing in a Television Motion Picture” for Christine and a Critics’ Choice Awards Nomination for “Best Television Movie.”

Christine also directed Aunjanue Ellis in the powerful short film, Fannie, about the ground-breaking testimony of human, voting and civil rights icon, Fannie Lou Hamer, in front of the Democratic National Convention’s Credentials Committee in 1964. Fannie earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for “Outstanding Short Form Film.” 

Christine serves on the board of trustees for Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana; is an advisor to the Film and Television department at the University of Notre Dame and has served as a professor in the University of Georgia’s MFA Screenwriting Program. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband, studio executive and producer Michael Swanson, and their four children.