SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – After three years, a Metro Detroit Black icon and former teacher is finally being honored.
“It was like losing a family member. I look at Brenda like she’s my grandmother,” said Orna Spencer as she was sitting in Southfield High School’s auditorium, where she was inspired to stay in the performing arts by a teacher who was just as inspiring.
Brenda Perryman was one of a kind. She spent her life shaping her students at Southfield and Highland Park high schools. She was awarded teacher of the year in 2005 for her work teaching speech and drama.
She was an award-winning poet, earning a presidential award, and was the only poet to read for the actor Sidney Poitier when he came to the Detroit Institute of Art.
She was also given multiple Spirit of Detroit awards and was named a most outstanding member of the Detroit NAACP.
A lover of people from all walks of life. She hosted two separate radio shows from 2010 to her death.
“Man, she was just so tenacious,” Spencer said. “She had this energy about her that was inspiring.”
But, in early 2020, Perryman caught COVID-19. Her cough set in on Monday, and she went to the hospital within a week. She would never come out.
“She facetimed me that Friday to tell me she had COVID, and I was like, ‘mom please, just please fight. We need you to fight. We need you,’” said Perryman’s daughter Heather Perryman-Tanks. “She was like, ‘Heather, I’m trying.’”
Perryman didn’t survive the week and passed away on April 5, 2020.
“Losing my mom was one of the worst, the worst thing to happen in my whole life because of how great of a mom she was,” Perryman-Tanks said. “Losing her, especially to COVID, was hard. Not being able to be at the hospital was the hardest part.”
After nearly three years, friends and family are finally coming together to celebrate Perryman’s life at Southfield High. The celebration on Feb. 10 promises to showcase a look at her life with stories from alumni, artists and performers, like Spencer, who was one of Perryman’s students. She’s now a playwright and director because of Perryman’s teaching.
“Not being able to mourn together was really difficult,” Spencer said. “So it means so much to me to be able to bring everyone together, in one place, under the same roof to celebrate her life and her accomplishments.”
“As a young girl, we couldn’t go anywhere without people, ‘Miss Perryman, Miss Perryman, ’ we couldn’t go anywhere without people stopping us,” Perryman-Tanks said. “To know that she lives in so many people’s hearts it means a lot to me it really does.”
The celebration is also a continuation. It also marks the official launch of a scholarship for student performers in Perryman’s name. A scholarship with hopes of continuing through the years.
Details for “A Night for Brenda Perryman”:
- When: Feb. 10
- Time: 630 p.m.
- Where: Southfield High for Arts & Technology
During Black History Month, iconic names and faces of American history are rightly exalted. But honoring Perryman this month is also about honoring a local black icon, even if she wouldn’t have called herself one. Those around her certainly will.
A link to the fundraiser can be found here.