Artist Branly Cadet selected for new Jean Baptiste Point du Sable statue in Chicago

The Chicago Park District has picked the artist to bring a new statue of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable to life.

Branly Cadet will research, design, and sculpt a bronze statue of du Sable, Chicago's first permanent non-native settler. Cadet, like du Sable, is of Haitian descent.

Cadet will work with architect Rodney Leon, who is also of Haitian descent, and who will advise on the interpretive writing and symbolic elements of the statue and its lighting and siting.

The statue will be unveiled at the opening of DuSable Park, near Wacker and Lake Shore drives, next year.

"Through their visionary art, Branly Cadet and Rodney Leon will pioneer a powerful tribute to Chicago's first permanent settler, beautifully lifting up the rich diversity, deep history, and vibrant cultural stories of our city," Chicago Park District general superintendent and chief executive officer Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said in a news release.

Cadet's portfolio of work also includes the Ark of Return at the United Nations in New York; ARISE: Ancestral Heirs Illuminate Truth at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama; and Stealing Home: The Jackie Robinson Memorial at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles.

"As an African American Architect of Haitian descent, this moment is especially meaningful and poignant," Cadet said in the release. "This monument shall stand as a permanent reminder to future generations of DuSable's historic contribution and legacy to the founding and establishment of Chicago as one of the greatest cities in the United States of America and the world."

DuSable's name is on many well-known landmarks — including DuSable Harbor on the lakefront at Randolph Drive, the DuSable Bridge on Michigan Avenue over the Chicago River, DuSable High School in Bronzeville, the DuSable Black History Museum and Cultural Center, and most recently and notably, DuSable Lake Shore Drive. But DuSable Park has gone by its name longer than many of those landmarks, and is more obscure than any of them.

The three-acre park is located where the north bank of the Chicago River where it meets Lake Michigan, east of DuSable Lake Shore Drive. It is near the site where as early as 1772, DuSable himself set up a trading post that eventually became the city of Chicago.

The park was dedicated with the DuSable name by Mayor Harold Washington in 1987, as the land was donated to the Chicago Park District by the Chicago Dock and Canal Trust. But nearly 40 years later, the park remains undeveloped and closed to the public.

That will be changing soon, and the statue is part of the grand plan for the park, which is expected to open in the middle of 2027.