Center for the literary arts in New York State
EXPLOITATION AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRY: YA FICTION
Tami Charles
6:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Conversation / Q&A
The Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center
135 South Pearl St., Albany NY 12202
Tami Charles, bestselling author of children’s books, will discuss her YA novel, Muted (2021), about a 17-year-old member of an R&B girl band — inspired in part by the author’s own experiences as a member of a girl band that opened for Boyz II Men.
The novel exposes exploitation in the music industry — and what it takes for a young person to fight back. The author recorded four original songs for the Audible version of Muted. Her many prize-winning children’s books include We Are Here (2023), and All Because You Matter (2020). Her newest, Together, United (2025), presents an inspirational message of unity and courage for children in difficult times.
Earlier the same day, she will visit with students at elementary schools in Albany.
Major support and funding provided by the Carl E. Touhey Foundation.
(Photo credit: Krisann Binett)
from the publisher
A ripped-from-the-headlines novel of ambition, music, and innocence lost, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Jason Reynolds!
Be bold. Get seen. Be Heard.
For seventeen-year-old Denver, music is everything. Writing, performing, and her ultimate goal: escaping her very small, very white hometown.
So Denver is more than ready on the day she and her best friends Dali and Shak sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world, Sean "Mercury" Ellis. Merc gives them everything: parties, perks, wild nights -- plus hours and hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it.
Until they're not.
Denver begins to realize that she's trapped in Merc's world, struggling to hold on to her own voice. As the dream turns into a nightmare, she must make a choice: lose her big break, or get broken.
Inspired by true events, Muted is a fearless exploration of the dark side of the music industry, the business of exploitation, how a girl's dreams can be used against her - and what it takes to fight back.
