Garden will bring food, fun and meditation
Dr. Willie Cusic, pastor of New Life Christian Ministries, held a groundbreaking ceremony on May 23 for a $67,000 garden to be constructed at 82nd and Euclid in the South Shore community. The space, he says, will provide not only beauty, but will be a space for peace, meditation, entertainment and a safe haven. Cusic has vowed to replicate the garden in other communities.
Cusic said the garden should be completed by next summer, and part of the garden will be shaped like the West Coast of Africa, symbolic of where African Americans lived before the slave trade. Cusic said his great, great, great, great grandmother was a slave. “This garden will represent the best of who we are,” he said. “It will be a place where one can find a sense of meditation and hope.”
“We want our community to have the beauty that it deserves, and we should cherish our people by giving them something they can be proud of,” said Cusic during the May 23 press conference on a vacant lot at 82nd and Euclid.
He thanked Alderman Michelle Harris (8th) for helping to get state funding for the garden; Virginia Smith, president of the 82nd Street Block Club; and member Joan Jones for their cooperation in helping to make his dream a reality. He thanked other partners, including St. Philip Neri Church and the Design Impact for Change Social Service Agency.
But Cusic isn’t stopping at creating just one garden. “We want to have these gardens in other communities,” he said.
Cusic is already planning Peace Garden number two with the help of Kids Off the Block. He said the organization plans to duplicate the garden in Roseland. “I love it. I think this will be wonderful because if we start with one, maybe we can move it across the Ward, said Alderman Harris. She commended Cusic for having the vision to improve the community.
The memorial garden is named after his parents, Willie D. and Clemmie T. Cusic, who were born in the Mississippi Delta. “They worked the land to eke out an existence while making white landowners rich,” he stated. “When the opportunity came to migrate to northern cities, they took the opportunity as a newly wedded couple to improve their lives.”
After leaving Mississippi his parents traveled to Gary, Indiana, where, Cusic said, “Jobs were plentiful, and the pay was barely better than the Mississippi sharecropping.”
As time went on, his parents had 11 children and bought a half-acre of land on the outskirts of Gary he called “The Garden.” It was where his father used his knowledge of farming to grow all the food they needed to survive, and his mother canned the food, preserving enough for the winter months.
While providing for their family, the Cusics soon became concerned about other families who also needed food. His father began clearing vacant lots in the neighborhood and planting food so their neighbors could come and eat without cost.
Like his parents’ garden, Cusic’s South Shore garden will be filled with food for the South Shore community. “It will have beautiful plants and flowers,” he said. “There will be comfortable seating and trees for shade so that relaxation, meditation, gatherings of all types will be made available to those who come.
“There will be a stage where events and performances can be rendered, and in honor of my parents and so many like them, this will be a place of beauty that belongs to the community. It will reflect love and life. He said the garden reflects the “vision, fortitude and far-reaching faith that my parents and so many others had for the advancement of our people.”
Born in Gary, Indiana, to a family of 13, Cusic said his parents raised their children as if they were in Mississippi. “We had to go out and till the fields, plant and pick the food right there on the outskirts of Gary,” Cusic told the Chicago Crusader. Cusic found and—about 15 years ago—met another brother for a total of 14 siblings.
Asked when he got the call to the ministry, Cusic said he was 14 years old. He has since served in the ministry for 47 years and has a passion for not only saving souls, but reaching out to those who have lost their way in life, especially the youth.
“When I was coming up, the gangs were rampant in Gary, Indiana. The gang members would come to me for counsel,” Cusic said, even though he was around their age. “They would literally come and sit on the stoop in front of our house, and I would talk to them. I could feel that spirit [of violence] leaving them,” he said.
He attributes his sense of community and sharing to his parents, who he says were great role models who went that extra mile to mentor others, especially sharing the knowledge about their farmland “gardens” that he too is now bringing to the South Shore community and beyond.
Looking back on his career, Cusic said creating this garden “is the best symbol of how my parents manifested a way for not only our family to eat, but for the whole community, too.”
Cusic graduated from Emerson High School, followed by Morehouse College, and on to the Seminary Interdenominational Theological Center. He received his Doctor of Ministry from Sancta Sophia Seminary in Oklahoma.
Reacting to the garden, Block Club President Smith said, “I think this garden is wonderful. It should have been done a long time ago. It has come into fruition.”
Other area residents had positive comments as well. Block Club member Joan Jones, a long-time community resident, said, “I have been in this community for 57 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this before.” She praised Cusic for his vision.
Ola Kirksey said she was overwhelmed when she looked at the picture of the garden. “I am so grateful, especially with our alderman working with our pastor. That is what we need. I thank the Lord for being a part of this.” More neighbors voiced similar sentiments. Said Diane Conway, the garden enables them to “carry out our mission. This is how we can make a difference.”
Priscilla Coatney said the garden “is a fabulous way to connect with peace and God.”
Cusic’s garden reminds Sharon Thurman of her childhood and helping her mother plant vegetables on their land. “I am excited about this garden,” she commented, reminiscing that the garden brings back memories of her mother, who planted vegetables on land that now houses the Golden Gates Housing Development.
