Talent Show for Suicide Prevention

By: Gabrielle Gale Prendatt-Carter

The Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide hosted a talent show, “Talent $4 Teens,” in the University’s Little Theater to raise money for the development and promotion of educational training programs.

The show was held on April 10 and featured a vast array of talent from Kean’s student body including spoken word poetry, beat boxing, stepping, card tricks, dance, rap, and singing. The judges were Stephanie Clervoyant, Stephanie Colon, and Jahir Calderon. The audience used clickers to vote for their favorite acts in the categories of “Variety,” “Dance,” and “Vocal.”

Mark Payne and Kendall “Savon” Bartley performed a spoken word piece entitled “Lost in Translation,” and won in the category of “Variety.” Bartley, 19, is a political science major from Chicago, IL, and has been performing spoken word poetry for three years. Bartley and Payne met at a party hosted by Def Jam poet, “Gemini,” and discovered that they both attended Kean University. Payne, 22, is a psychology major from Newark, NJ, and has been performing spoken word poetry for three years. Bartley’s former relationship inspired the piece and was conceived when his ex-girlfriend told him, “we lost it.”

Tsu-min Lin danced to Skrillex’s “Promises” and won in the category of “Dance.” Lin, 20, is a Criminal Justice major and began dancing during his senior year at Parsippany Hill High School. He was taught how to dance by his mentor, Ilya Lazarof, while at Parsippany Hill. According to Lin, his inspiration derives from “an event that happened to me, or a word that means something to me.” In the case of promises, Lin has “held promises but never meets them, and the ones I do keep, is a great feeling, and the ones I don’t keep, it makes me sad and really shoots me down.”

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