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By Juliet Martinez, managing editor
From traditional cultures to modern science, there is a lot to support the idea that nature and connection to others can heal. Now three women are creating a space in Hazelwood with the idea that being in nature and community can be a balm for grief.
Tucked away on Flowers Avenue near the intersection with Nansen Street is a small, park-like space with benches, a canopy for shade, flower plantings and a gently curving gravel path. The space does not have a name yet, but it is ready to welcome visitors.
“We just want people to know that it’s there right now, and they can go down there and sit and think,” said Jourdan Hicks, who spearheaded the project with funding from the Heinz Foundation. Ms. Hicks is the board chair of Hazelwood Initiative Inc., which is the fiduciary managing the funds for the project.
The space is a tribute to the organizers' loved ones who have died, Ms. Jourdan said during an Aug. 28 phone call. The Adopt-A-Lot program does not allow memorial signs or dedications on adopted lots, but that does not change the organizers’ intentions.
“The memorial is people working collaboratively to bring something to the community in memory of people who also brought something to the community,” she said. “In their spirit, we do this work.”
Hazelwood native Jovanna Robinson Williams decided to join the project in honor of her two sisters, Andre’A Robinson, who died in 2011, and Markeiaha “Tina” Robinson, who died by suicide in 2022. Both of them struggled with their mental health, Ms. Williams said during an Oct. 17 phone call.
Understanding of mental illness and access to Black therapists has grown, but help was not always there for her sisters, she said. As a former social worker, she wanted to make the garden “a space for people to go to find peace and bring awareness. You don’t have to suffer alone.”
Having the space in Hazelwood was important to her, even though she no longer lives in the neighborhood.
“It’s a place where the heart is,” she said.
Hazelwood was a place to connect with family and friends, but also the place where Kim Allen’s brother was murdered in 2009. Da-Ton Glenn, also known by the nicknames Mookie and Fat Rai, was a man who acted like everyone’s big brother.
“He was my youngest brother/oldest son,” she said on Oct. 3. “He was the one that took care of everybody, always was giving.”
Ms. Allen said since his death, she has honored him by opening the restaurant he always wanted her to. She ran Fat Rai’s at 5009 Second Ave. for a few years in the 2010s, and now operates her Icee business under the same name. While the restaurant was open, she fed people who couldn’t afford food and took her homemade chicken chili to feed unhoused people during cold months.
“I just always thought of things my brother would want me to be doing for him,” she said.
Hazelwood-based firm Rooke Creative designed and built the space. It includes a shipping container that Ms. Allen hopes will eventually house a small free store. She also wants it to be beautified by some of the same neighborhood artists who created the graffiti mural that once graced the inside of her restaurant.
“If anybody is reading The Homepage and they know the graffiti guys, I'm looking for them,” she said with a wink. “Tell them Fat Rai is looking for them again.”
Ms. Hicks said one of the things she has heard from longtime residents is that they miss the recreation and fun of the neighborhood’s heyday. When people left or died, the strands that connected them to a whole community died too.
So, while it is important to build housing, open up employment and education opportunities and bring other tangible programs to the neighborhood, those things alone are not enough.
“People need to need to go know where they can go in their community when they're sad or when they feel lonely or alone,” she said. “And there's somewhere in the community where you can go to just, you know, hear the birds. Those things matter too.”
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