Parker Village October

FIRST FRIDAY IN HIGHLAND PARK

THE FORGOTTEN

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HISTORY OF EDITH PERCHMAN PARK PARKER VILLAGE TOUR W/ SOLAR STREET LIGHT

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Publishers Corner a few words from our fearless leader Juan Shannon

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First Fridays in Highland park

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Contents

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The forgotten history of Edith Perchman Park

Highland Park Just Recovery Task Force Folder of notes and public documents: tinyurl.com/JRTFpublic Community Input Form: tinyurl.com/JRTFinput Zoom meeting link: tinyurl.com/JRTFmeeting Or dial (312) 626-6799 meeting ID 829 9012 8391 password 532190

PARKER VILLAGE

3RD ANNUAL HALLOWEEN CANDY GIVE-AWAY

For the 3rd year in a row, we will give away 100 bags of candy between 5pm and 7pm at our Highland Park Campus. 181 East Buena Vista!

Important Dates HPC3 Food Distribution 10/26/20 Parker Village 11/02/20 Avalon Village

Annual Halloween Candy Give-Away 10/31/20 Parker Village 5pm-7pm First Fridays | HPACC 11/6/20 12/4/20 Follow us: Facebook/ParkerVillageHP Twitter/ParkerVillageHP Twitter/ModernTribeCommunications Instagram/ParkerVillageHP Issuu/ModernTribeCommunication

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he Highland Park Arts & Cultural Council (HPACC) seeks to enrich the lives of residents of Highland Park by integrating arts and culture directly into our community revitalization. Partners include the Highland Park Business Association, ArtOps, and the Erb Family Foundation. In 2019, the launch of First Fridays Highland Park was an exciting time for our community.

There were numerous events happening every first Friday of each month from May until December.

Locations all over the city have been activated with programming which include music, poetry, storytelling, dancing, singing, painting, aerialist, wine tasting, food, movies, game night and mini-tours in a Model A Ford with Antique Touring Company. We thank all of the wonderful places who have hosted First Fridays like Nandi’s Knowledge Cafe, 333 Midland/Annex Gallery, Avalon Village, Ohana Gardens, Model T Plaza, Hamilton Tucker Art Gallery and the Highland Park Municipal Building. Local artists and businesses were supported through grant funding. Many people also donated their time, talents and expertise during all of the events and at two professional artists panel discussions; How to Not be a Starving Artist Panel and Creative Well Beings: A Mental Health Panel Discussion for Artists.

This year, First Fridays, like so many other events, had to pivot in what we could do in the community due to Covid-19. We went virtual for the first time with a podcast and an online comedy show, in partnership with local TV Station WHPR, located in Highland Park.

The HPACC then began organizing outdoor drive-up events. Our outdoor drive-up concert with the ladies of Straight Ahead was a huge hit. The biggest draw overall has been the drive-in movie experiences we’ve held. We cannot thank the City of Highland Park enough for partnering with us to make the space available for the three drive-in movies we showed this year.

Our final two First Fridays for 2020 are coming up, November 6th and December 4th. Please like our page on Facebook to keep up with announcements. The Highland Park community has a long history of arts and an amazing group of artists. We hope to continue to offer this unique experience for many years to come.

https://www.facebook.com/ highlandparkartsandculturalcouncil

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The Forgotten History

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By: Angela Lugo-Thomas

I

have lived in Highland Park for 20 years. After the 4th of July this year, a bunch of trash and fireworks debris was left in the open field near Barber Preparatory Academy. A few residents, including me, went to clean it up and later, former Council President ProTem and community leader, Glenda McDonald, posted about our clean up and mentioned the official name of the park, Edith Perchman Park.

I had never known that that open field was a city park or that it had a name. I decided to look up the name and was horrified at what I learned. The story is heartbreaking and should not be forgotten. I do not know why it hit me like it did. Maybe, it’s because I’ve lived here for so long and never heard about it. Maybe, it’s because I used to deliver newspapers as a young girl. Or, maybe, it’s because I have three daughters and the youngest is currently 12 years old. On August 18, 1974, twelveyear old Edith Perchman was delivering newspapers on Moss St. in Highland Park and was shot to death by a man, Rudolph Acosta, who thought a hitman was coming to get him. The incident made national news.

In 1975, the city re-named the park after her. Sadly, it was never developed. In 1998, a Detroit Free Press article was written about her sister’s wishes and attempts to develop the park into a beautiful space for the community. It never happened. Learning about the park started me on a mission to learn as much as I could about the incident and what happened afterwards. What I learned during my research was disturbing. I found out that the killer only served 6 years for killing this 12 year-old girl, who was just delivering newspapers.

Needless to say, Highland Park has had many issues in the past 20 years and there has not been any funding to devote to the local parks. In the early 2000’s, Revival Tabernacle fundraised

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for a new playground and with groups of volunteers, installed a new playscape in 2002. It was set on fire about six years later. A newer, smaller playscape was built a couple of years later. Other people have helped to keep nets on the basketball rims of the court, which is currently the most used space in the park.

The original sign at the park has been gone for many years.

That bothered me so I decided to get a banner made to put on the fence of the park. Thank you to Eban Morales of Drawn 2Create for helping to make the banner. This will be a temporary sign until we gather some momentum behind fulfilling the intention of this space. August 18, 2020, was the 46th anniversary of Edith’s death. It’s been 45 years since the park was re-named in her memory, in 1975.

If you would like to donate, please go to the ioby crowdfunding donation link at https://ioby.org/project/edithperchman-park-highland-park-mi.

Every amount is appreciated and will go towards improving the park. There are other ways to help, too. Contact Angela Lugo-Thomas at alugothomas72@ gmail.com.

After speaking with Highland Park City Council President Clyburn, he directed me to speak to Ms. Sue Norander, the Director of the Highland Park Recreation Department, so that she could inform the Recreation Commission of my plans. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that she and others had started to work on some plans for the park, a few years ago. I have also heard of many other efforts to keep the park clean and make it safer for the children. Thank you to all of the people who have done this over the years, especially the HP Local Boys and Ms. McDonald.

My wish is to bring together corporations, local businesses, community groups and residents to work on this project.

The Detroit Free Press has been invited to join the effort, too. That was the newspaper that Edith was delivering that fateful morning. Last month, I finally had the opportunity to speak with the last surviving sibling of Edith Perchman and several family members. No matter what, it is about honoring her memory. The family has waited 45 years to see the park developed. It is time to get it done.

The story about Perchman Park was shared by Andrea Isom on WXYZ-7 on September 2, 2020. The outpouring of support has been overwhelming. So many people, many who live in or grew up in Highland Park, learned about this history for their first time, too. We are crowdfunding for this project on ioby. My hope is that the community of Highland Park and others will come together to develop Edith Perchman Park into a space that will honor her memory and create a beautiful space for the community to enjoy for generations to come.

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About Angela Lugo-Thomas: Angela is an active community member and enjoys leading walking groups, gardening, dancing, and organizing community events. She has lived in Highland Park for twenty years. She recently learned the history behind a local park in her neighborhood, Edith Perchman Park, and has taken on a project to help develop it.

Angela is a local Detroit organizer for GirlTrek.

Beyond walking, GirlTrek’s active members support local and national policy to increase physical activity through walking, improve access to safe places to walk, protect and reclaim green spaces, and improve the walkability and built environments of 50 high-need communities, like Detroit, across the United States. She is a member of GirlTrek, Belle Isle Concern, Soulardarity, RicanStruction Drum & Dance Group, Keep Growing Detroit, Detroit People’s Food Co-op and the Highland Park Arts & Cultural Council.