Levan Kennedy, 18, gifted wordsmith who had a thirst for knowledge

“I get fly like Peter Pan. But I’m not from Neverland. I’m from Philly you can die in here if you don’t got a plan”-Levan Kennedy

Levan Colin Kennedy had too many plans to accomplish in one lifetime. He set his sights on rapping and producing music, owning a solar-powered vending machine business, buying a morgue, and investing in real estate for passive income. He also expressed interest in engineering, software development and literature.

“He was going to make money. He was going to be known,” said Levan’s mother, Colleen.

High-strung, Levan excelled academically but often got bored with the pace of learning. He could recite the alphabet by the time he turned one. By three, he had memorized love songs. By five, he could fully assemble a K’nex toy car. By seven, he had mastered handmade Loom bracelets.

Levan Kennedy Sr., the disciplinarian of the household, teased his son for taking up a “girlie” pursuit.

“Why do you think I have so many girlfriends,” the younger Levan fired back.

Levan’s father died suddenly from complications of pneumonia when the boy was 13 years old.

Without his father, Levan struggled to stay engaged in school.

“He had that mentality about having to be the man of the house,” remembered his friend, Mira. Levan felt responsible for protecting his mother, younger sister and his tight-knit group of friends, she said.

Levan was wise beyond his years, attentive to others’ emotional needs. He channeled his own pain in hundreds of rap songs under the name “yxnggvan” or “2solidvan.” Wearing glow-in the-dark hoodies, ripped jeans, dreads, and a sparse mustache, he chronicled his regrets, aspirations and heartache on a front stoop or behind a steering wheel.

“Crazy that I made it out when everything started to crumble,” he chanted in “Dark Past.”

“He was his own voice,” Mira said. “Nobody would ever sound like that ever.”

After dropping out of high school, Levan re-enrolled when he was 17 years old during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Bryan Booth, Levan’s former advisor and science teacher at el Centro de Estudiantes, an alternative high school in Frankford, described the teenager as a driven independent learner who wrote insightful lyrics rooted in his personal experience in journal after journal. Levan also assumed the role of “big brother” for his female peers.

“Don’t be sad. Be happy,” he encouraged them in a singsongy voice.

Levan flourished at el Centro and consistently made the honor roll. He was on track to receiving his diploma this winter and was registered at the Community College of Philadelphia to take extra credits.

“If he was not learning something worthwhile, he would walk out of the classroom,” Bryan recalled. “But he would walk to another classroom where there was something worthwhile to learn.”

On March 8, 2022 at around 8:45 a.m., Levan was on his way to school to give a semester-end presentation when he was fatally shot in his gold Chevy Malibu less than two blocks from his home on the 6400 block of Loretto Street, near his sister’s bus stop. No arrests have been made.

Born on March 26, 2003 in Germantown, Levan moved with his family to Northeast Philadelphia when he was about four years old. Close family called him Colin while his friends preferred Van.

Growing up, Levan read the full book series, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” and enjoyed startling family members by jumping out from behind cabinets. He was the master of funny faces and crazy dance moves.

He helped Colleen, who was disabled, with grocery shopping and climbing the stairs. He held his sister’s hand when she got her ears pierced.

He played football and hung out at the Rolling Thunder Skating Center on the Boulevard.

But Levan’s favorite activity was mixing beats in his basement with his friends. Fake “shiny” people bothered him, Mira said, but he always opened up his home to a close friend in need.

Levan learned to play the piano in one week, his mother said, and the first song he played was his sister’s favorite, “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran. He experimented with guitar riffs at el Centro and was mentoring another student for an upcoming talent show.

Levan idolized Michael Jackson and Bruno Mars and he just knew he would appear on “American Idol,” Colleen said. He suffered from vitiligo, the same skin condition that affected Michael Jackson, but embraced it.

“Remember u miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” Levan wrote in December 2021 in a letter to his future self.

“I’m grateful for everything I lost in my life,” he wrote in a separate school assignment around that same time. “There’s always a lesson between the lines.”

Tattoos dedicated to his mother and late father decorated Levan’s arms. If Colleen got irritated with him, he insisted that she say, “I love you,” immediately.

“Say it,” he goaded her. “Say it louder!”

Levan wanted a big family, including a wife who would sing karaoke with him in the car, Colleen remembered.

Yet he lived in fear of the streets, aware of the toll and trauma of gun violence. When his school went virtual during the pandemic, he refused to go outside or take public transportation for more than a year. After, when he did venture out, he wore a hoodie so that he was unrecognizable.

Following Levan’s death, el Centro organized a City Hall rally and held a talent show in his honor. The school gave him a posthumous diploma.

In his song, “Without You,” Levan half-screamed, half-sobbed: “Get my sister outta Philly. Don’t want her to grow up in it. It’s like I’m living every day in hell without you in it.”

After Levan was gone, Colleen and her daughter immediately moved out of Philly.

“I guess he accomplished his life goal,” Bryan said dolefully.

A reward of up to $20,000 if available to anyone that comes forward with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible for Levan Kennedy’s murder. Anonymous calls can be submitted by calling the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS. Information can also be submitted to the Philadelphia Police Department online or by calling 215-686-TIPS.

Resources are available for people and communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Click here for more information.