| His
name is Kevin Benoit. The seventeen year old was born on
January 2nd in Brooklyn. He currently lives in Crown Heights
Brooklyn with his mother, father, younger brother (7) and
two older sisters (22 & 23).
Kevin’s age can be very deceiving. The average 17
year-old is getting ready to enter their senior year in
high school, working on getting the right amount of credits
and planning for all the senior activities. Kevin on the
other hand is on his way to his second year of college.
He graduated from George W. Wingate H.S. in three years,
just months after his 16th birthday.  “Did
you get skipped?”, he’s always asked. “NO,
I went through every grade as a child and in High school
you can’t get skipped. You have to get 40 credits
and 7 gym classes and I did all that. I did everything the
next person did, just in three years.” That’s
always the response he gives.
Kevin is currently enrolled at John Jay College of Criminal
Justice a CUNY school in New York City. He spends most of
his time working on a newspaper, “Parlé Publications”
which he started in May of 2004. He spends mornings in classes
whether it’s Fall, Spring, or Summer and he also is
branching out into an online publication HarlemLive, where
he is working on becoming the Editor in Chief of the already
established teen orientated organization. Most Days he’s
back in the house to baby sit his seven year old brother.
All this and he’s not even eighteen yet.
Kevin likes to consider himself a simple man. He lives by
the notion that life is short. “I just want to accomplish
some things before it’s all over.”
Parlé Publications happens to be one of the things
he has done before it’s all over. Parlé Publications
is the larger version of something that was once so small.
In high school Kevin spent a lot of his time doing extracurricular
activities, one included starting and putting together the
first all student newspaper at his school. College can be
so boring, a lot of the time so mid way through the spring
semester Kevin decided he needed to do something to make
good use of his days. He had already written for three different
newspapers so starting this one could be no different. Parlé
Publications is the finished product of a month long search
for something to do. The planning process lasted through
the month of April and by May 2nd Volume 1 was ready to
go. By June 15th Volume 2 (June-July) was on the street
and on August 16th Volume 3 (August-September) will be released.
Parlé’s goal is to become a free outlet of
music, film, politics, comedy and of course poetry. Unlike
Vibe, XXL, The Source or any of those other entertainment
publications, Parlé features more than just music,
and it gives the less fortunate ‘kid from the hood’
an opportunity to read about an artists or an author for
no cost. 
Parlé has something that will tweak the interest
of everyone in this City. There’s a bit of everything
available in his small publication and although you may
not agree with everything, I can guarantee you’ll
have something to share with a friend every time. What we
have is more than just another Hip-Hop Publication-as if
there aren’t enough as it is. With Parlé you’ll
get your album reviews and interviews but on the next page
there’ll be something informative, right next to that
you’ll get something to make you laugh. IT’S
A WIN-WIN!!!
Parlé’s success has been backed by many different
individuals. Although advertising hasn’t picked up
one man has supported in exchange for an advertisement from
the beginning. Plus of course there are the record labels
and authors and publicists who see Parlé as a chance
to get some much needed publicity.
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