About
Parlé Magazine began as a bi-monthly urban entertainment print publication. It was established in 2004, featuring some of the biggest names in urban literature, music and film. To date we’ve released 33 print issues of the publication.
Tyrese, Tyler Perry, T-Pain, Mario, Teri Woods, New Edition, Zane-the queen of erotica, Lil’ Wayne, Ne-yo and Busta Rhymes are just some of the names and faces who we’ve featured in the publication over the last ten plus years.
Our slogan is ‘The Voice of Urban Entertainment’, therefore every volume, we put together a publication unlike anything else in print and now online.
These days Parlé Magazine is an online urban entertainment forum to find quality content for upcoming and mainstream talent. Through Parlé Entertainment we also promote events, artists and more…
CONTACT US
Parlé Magazine Headquarters
9109 Avenue N
Brooklyn NY 11236
Editor/Founder:
Kevin Benoit
Tel: 646.262.6026
email: parlemagazine@gmail.com
Kevin Benoit…
I started Parlé when I was 17 years old in my first year of college. The only real print media experience I had was from starting my own high school newspaper and the summer after h.s. graduation I interned with a startup magazine basically helping him get contacts and try to get the publication off the ground. That magazine never launched.
I was in school for legal studies and never intended for a career in media, but while at John Jay I was getting a financial aid refund check every month I was in school. It was a good look, but I was spending the money without a care. After I’d spent the first few checks I stopped myself and told myself that I need to invest it in something that would impact my future once I was out of college. I was sitting in English class one day in early April 2004 and it all came together in that hour. I came up with the name, the concept, the slogan (not your average) and all I had to do was figure out how much it would cost.
By May 4, 2004 my first issue was out on the streets. A lot of the contacts I had found while I was interning for that other publication turned out to be the contacts for most of the features early on, and a lot of those same people are still in touch with me. Even though I had the refund check I had to have my girlfriend at the time, put the cost of the issue on her credit card. I think I gave her a couple hundred but she paid for a majority of it.
When I first started I had no idea what I was doing. I used to cut and paste my articles onto a sheet of paper because I didn’t know what photoshop was or how to graphic design. I didn’t have a camera or photographer so the companies had to provide everything. It was just a really big learning process for me. I’m still learning. I believe that you shouldn’t think too long or hard about things though, if you want to do it, just do it!!! Make mistakes, learn from them but keep doing. I know people who were talking about starting something around the same time I started Parlé…and their still talking. All that talking is for losers!
…can’t stop, wont stop.
