Against a deep, talented field of contestants performing song and dance, Dalamari Holman wowed the judges with her brand of poetry.<\/p>\n
The Kent-Meridian High School sophomore stole the show and the grand prize in the Kent Has Talent program at her school’s Performing Arts Center last Friday night.<\/p>\n
Holman, 16, recited her poem, “The Typical Black Girl,” a social commentary of today’s racial relationships. The poem, in essence, demands that you remain true to yourself and be inclusive with others, regardless of color.<\/p>\n
“You don’t have to act a certain way to be a certain race. I mean, I don’t have to be quiet and be white. I can be quiet and be black,” Holman said of her message. “I can be anything and act however. It doesn’t necessarily tie back into my race.”<\/p>\n
Holman, who enjoys writing and excels in language arts and drama at her school, one day wants to put her words in motion, perhaps on stage and screen.<\/p>\n
The grand prize, worth $500, came in addition to the $250 Holman won for taking the teen category.<\/p>\n
Holman, daughter of Thomasene Robinson and Darius Holman, wasn’t sure of her chances.<\/p>\n
“50-50, maybe,” she said. “I never performed my poetry in front of anyone except for family and my class. I’m good with people but I’m not a speaker in front of a large group.”<\/p>\n
Crystal Martinez, a drama and musical theater teacher at the Allegro Performing Arts Academy, captured the adult division, singing her rendition of “She Used To Be Mine”. Allegro’s Taylor Wilson, 8, a third-grader at Meridian Elementary School, won the youth division and the Audience Choice Award. Wilson, daughter of Teresa and Terrance Wilson, danced to the theme of “Dream”.<\/p>\n
Division winners each won $250 from event sponsors. The Audience Choice Award was worth $185.<\/p>\n
Proceeds from the event benefited the Kent Community Foundation, which supports education and the cultural arts in the greater Kent area. Bowen Scarff Ford Lincoln presented the program. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Poet, singers, dancers shine in Kent Has Talent program <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":220,"featured_media":24973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-24965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/220"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24965"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}