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AAPRC Weekly: La’Verne Perry-Kennedy

La’Verne Perry-Kennedy
Retired Vice-President of Media Relations
Sony Entertainment/Sony Urban
PR Consultant, LPK Ink.
NYC

In the world of entertainment public relations, “long-time employee” is a rarely used description and “high-strung execu-diva” can probably be applied more often than anyone cares to admit. All of which makes La’Verne Perry-Kennedy a rare creature. Not only has she managed to not take herself or the industry too seriously, she also spent 35 years at the same company, Sony Entertainment. Working her way up from a receptionist to a vice president and head of media relations for Sony Urban, Perry-Kennedy’s career has intersected with scores of music’s hottest stars –– including Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Sade, Miami Sound Machine, The SOS Band, Alexander O’Neal, Sherelle and B2K.

In spite of her professional achievements, though, Perry-Kennedy seems most proud of her personal triumphs –– her marriage of seven years, her travels, her hobbies, her friends. “For some people, this business is their life. It has never been my life. Never, ever,” says Perry-Kennedy. “It’s more important to be a person than a title.”

At the end of 2004, Perry-Kennedy took advantage of a generous separation package that came down the pipe after Sony merged with another music giant, BMG. These days she works from home on just a handful of accounts, most recently the soundtrack to the hit movie “Diary of A Mad Black Woman.” She’s also committed to working with manager/producer Chris Stokes (B2K) on the emerging R&B singer Marques Houston. Perry-Kennedy makes it clear, though, that she’s not committed to becoming “La’Verne Perry-Kennedy Incorporated.” There will be no glitzy boutique PR firm run from her living room.

She plans, she says, to take on a project here and there simply because she wants to. For all intents and purposes she’s out of the business and doesn’t want back in. “I see so many people who, when they leave the business, don’t know what to do,” says Perry-Kennedy. “They scrounge and scratch their way trying to get back into it and I never understood that…I think it’s the way I got into [music PR], by accident.”

In 1970, publicists walked a much different career path than today’s up-and-coming media execs, and that path usually started at a reception desk. A young La’Verne Perry-Kennedy was just back from a month-long visit to her mother’s native Trinidad when she walked into a Manhattan employment agency looking for a job. She was tanned and glam in a full-length fox fur. The agency took one look at her and gave her a list of potential employers that included CBS, Paramount Pictures and NBC. Perry-Kennedy went to the first entry on the list, CBS, and the personnel office sent her to interview with Sony forerunner Epic Records. She was hired as a receptionist and began her steady march up the ladder, though it would be ten years before she landed in publicity.

In the meantime, Perry-Kennedy enjoyed herself immensely. Since her previous job had been with a bank, she appreciated the laid-back atmosphere at the label. “It was more money, more fun, and a very different environment than what I was used to,” Perry-Kennedy recalls. “I heard music all day. I got exposed to different types of music. It was really cool.” After hours, she and a group of friends who called themselves the Pride of New York were living it up on New York’s hot disco-era nightlife scene, throwing parties and fashion shows at clubs around Manhattan.

Three years into her tenure at CBS, Perry-Kennedy was offered a position as a product manager in the promotions department –– and turned it down. She saw how her bosses looked when they came out of their meetings. “I said to myself: I don’t want to look like that,” Perry-Kennedy remembers. She remained in her position as an assistant coordinator, partied with her friends and generally had a great time until she landed in the press department in 1979.

Her first publicity position was as an assistant to Win Wilford, the head of Black music publicity. Right away, Perry-Kennedy knew she’d found her niche. “I think it was the direct contact with the artist and that you could actually see the results of your work,” Perry-Kennedy explains. “Whereas when I worked in the promotions department they were just concerned with getting their records on the radio and if you didn’t get it on you got beat up. It was just too much drama.”

Early on in her tenure in publicity, Perry-Kennedy established herself as someone with a knack for dealing with artists others had labeled as “difficult.” These people skills earned the ingénue her first promotion. She’d been doing follow-up and acting as a go-between between the department and Caribbean music trailblazer Eddie Grant. When it was time for Grant to go on tour, the department sent Perry-Kennedy on the road. When she got back, she’d been promoted to manager.

The sultry British chanteuse, Sade, was another artist who’d garnered the “difficult” label. Perry-Kennedy, who worked with the singer on her first foray into the U.S. market, had a different perspective. “I respected her vision and how she liked to do things,” says Perry-Kennedy. “The company sometimes had a hard time with her because [Sade] always, from day one, called her own shots. That was unusual for a new artist even though she had the UK background. She wanted things done her way and that was it…I was patient and I was honest with her. I think people have a tendency to stroke the artist. Instead of telling the truth you tell them what you think they want to hear or you leave it to someone else to tell them the real deal. I have a hard time with that because I can’t lie about certain things.”

When it came to her relationships with media, Perry-Kennedy’s nononsense perspective once again served her well. “I think people make things a little deeper than they are. We’re not reinventing the wheel at these record companies,” says Perry-Kennedy. “I’m not one of those hard-pressed people and I think that a lot of journalists appreciate that about me. I remember going to lunch with Nelson George when he was working at Billboard or Cashbox or one of those, and he said ‘La’Verne, you know why I like you? Because you don’t call me a million times. You push me on the things that are important to be pushed at the time.’”

Solid relationships with artists and journalists aside, it could be said that Perry-Kennedy’s greatest accomplishment has simply been survival. The publicity maven emerged from 35 years of regime changes virtually unscathed. The secret to her longevity? An aversion to office politics. “Each time they changed the head position, the new person would come in and change the staff. I got by because I decided I was just going to do my job. I never thought I was beyond being let go, but I never over-bonded with anybody. When somebody new came in you couldn’t associate me with the last regime.”

Of course, her survival doesn’t mean there weren’t, well, challenging times. Just as Perry-Kennedy began her tenure with Win Wilford, there was upheaval. The corporate structure was altered and in the world of Sony publicity Black music was no longer a separate division. Perry-Kennedy’s boss was now reporting to the head of the pop music department, at the time, publicity maven Susan Blond. “It was certainly insulting to Win back then,” Perry-Kennedy recalls. “I know because he verbalized it, to go from having your own department and division to having to report to Susan Blond –– whom I love and who turned out to be a mentor to me.”

In 1983, Wilford was felled by company-wide layoffs and Perry-Kennedy filled in the urban music gap, eventually earning a promotion to associate director. Over the next 20 years, she survived at least six division heads and a dizzying array of reporting changes –– from pop to urban and back again. Some bosses were more memorable than others. “David McPherson and Lamont Boles were the most challenging people I ever reported to in publicity,” Perry-Kennedy says. “They made me earn every penny…Some people can’t deal with that kind of pressure but I’ve always worked very good under pressure.”

Lamont Boles sent Perry-Kennedy out on party-planning odysseys, putting her in charge of every release party in every market for Luther Vandross. Boles also made her a very frequent flier. “With other bosses, if you go to L.A. for a video shoot you don’t fly back out that same day right after the shoot wraps,” Perry-Kennedy laughs. “Lamont had me fly back out the same day and go back to the office…I became a platinum American Advantage flyer. He’s doing independent stuff now. When I left Sony he called me and asked me to do ‘The Diary of a Mad Black Woman.’ I still love him even though he nearly worked me to death.”

These days, office politics and demanding bosses are vestiges of her past. Except for one or two media projects, Perry-Kennedy’s plan includes little more than enjoying life and exploring whatever gets her attention. Does she miss the office? Even a little bit? “The industry has changed. Sony has changed. It wasn’t as much fun going to work anymore,” says Perry-Kennedy. “I used to say, gosh, I think I would miss it –– going to work everyday and dressing up –– but I don’t miss it at all. It’s weird. I think I was just done.”

A year ago, after her mother passed away, Perry-Kennedy started embellishing handbags as a sort of therapy. Handbags proliferated around the house and people started asking to buy them.

She has cautiously given this new venture a name, LPK Couture, and recently fended off interest from Bendel’s and potential business partners who want to make LPK Couture a larger enterprise. Perry-Kennedy just isn’t interested. Her big plans these days are vacation plans. She’s thinking about a trip to Europe and a return to the Caribbean Island of St. Martin/St. Maarten, which she visits at least three times a year. In the meantime, she’s enjoying life with her husband and two dogs, Snoop and Diamond, and spending more time with family and friends. “Basically, I’ve been working most of my adult life and I just want to do whatever it is I feel like doing at the time. I want to get in touch with my creative side. I want to be able to travel. I want to shop ’til I drop. I just want to enjoy life.”

AAPRC’s Mission
The African-American Public Relations Collective (AAPRC) is an assemblage of professionals who provide communication conduits among clients, journalists, media and our communities. We come together as a collective because we recognize the importance of building those same conduits amongst ourselves.

A great deal of what we do is professional development––updating our skills, keeping pace with technology, refining and streamlining processes, providing a forum to tackle the issues that impact our work environment––but we believe our professional lives benefit most from the forging of effective alliances. Connected to one another, we possess the power of a nationwide body of committed, knowledgeable practitioners with an eye on the future.

As we move into the 21st century at lightning speed, mass media and its potent messages occupy an ever-larger part of our daily lives and our collective psyche. The AAPRC is focused on helping our members gain a deeper understanding of media’s force and supporting their growth as powerful participants in the global communications network.

AAPRC’s Contact
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New York NY 10019
1212 765 7910
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By Gwendolyn Quinn on 7/21/2005[read on] [7 comments]

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