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Femmixx.com Announces
Tachelle "Shamash" Wilkes pens a dope novel for young adults. She is the owner of one of the largest and oldest Hip Hop websites dedicated to women Femmixx.com
What happens when you take a positive message for young girls and place it inside of a novel filled with a crack addicted mother, an unlikely role model, and a juvenile detention center?
Brooklyn, NY, July 2, 2009 – Author-Educator, Tachelle “Shamash” Wilkes tackles these questions and more in her debut novel Amanda’s Ray. This unique novel fills a void in hip-hop where uplifting messages for young girls are far and few in between. Wilkes hopes to close this gap by using the backdrop of hip-hop while tackling issues of self esteem and identity in this Brooklyn coming-of-age story.
Narrator, Amanda Raye, is a sixteen year old aspiring rapper who is obsessed with her idol, Kendra Star-a female rap star who eventually catches a serious charge and is sent to prison. The turning point takes place when the budding young rapper gets in an altercation which lands her in the Albany Detention Center. While on lock down Amanda reaches out to her idol and Kendra Star shares how her tragic upbringing and poor choices landed her in prison. Ultimately the rapper tells Amanda that she isn’t one to follow and urges her to look within herself for positivity and strength.
As an accomplished publisher and hip-hop journalist, Wilkes combined the glitz and glamour that she has seen as a media insider, with the gritty truth that she has faced as a public school educator.
“I have seen so much in city schools-homelessness, abuse, serious self esteem issues- so I know first-hand that young people need something positive and tangible to hold on to,” Wilkes says.
Understanding the power of the pen, Wilkes wrote Amanda’s Ray to not merely entertain, but as an eye-opener intended to affect change, even if it’s one young mind at a time. Amanda’s Ray will be released on Enaz Publications July 20, 2009 and is currently available for pre-sale at: www.femmixx.com