While shining brightly from the inside out like a selenite purity stone, Chanell Angeli channeled her life experiences and placed her pain, peace and unearthing’s into a reflective manuscript called “Melt” in addition to her unreleased book entitled “By Still Waters.”
The first collective, Melt, is inspired by the repetitious dating world where Angeli experienced superficial acquaintances with the men that she captivated. “I craved something deeper, and that’s how I began to write the book. It’s about connecting with others on a more spiritual level before you dive into the physical and emotional components of a relationship. All three elements are in the book. My other project is called “By Still Waters,” and it will be released late summer. It’s a poetry collection that kind of goes with the theme of heartbreak and healing. It ends on a happy note. It begins very dark. I had to work through a lot of my own mess. I had to get some realization within myself that maybe that relationship didn’t work out because of me. Maybe I had unresolved issues from the last person I dated. It [the book] is very vulnerable. The first book was a guide. The poetry is more than words. It’s real life. It makes me nervous because it’s extremely transparent and open. It all comes together,” Angeli explained.
“I’ve done poetry for a long time, but its been like my hidden secret,” says the author. “I just got with a mentor who’s amazing, Poppy Picasso, he’s so talented. He told me I should do spoken word, but that’s not really my medium. Once I started doing spoken word, I realized that I could combine the two on my social media platform with my visuals.”
Angeli has a filmic that’s part of her Sacred Conversations collections entitled Memories —It blends with sulkiness and obscurity. An album cover of Amy Winehouse is seen at the beginning of the capture. When asked if there was a hidden meaning behind the image, Angeli responded, “I just really think she was talented and gifted. It’s just a human struggle, for a sad and depressed artist. I kinda relate to that because my poems are very dark, moody, and graphic as well.”
The 30-year-old beauty was raised in Miami, but she’s lived in Atlanta for the past 7 years, which is her mainstay home.
“I grew up in Miami with my mom, who was a single parent since I was 5 years old. She did everything herself after my father went to prison. I also have two other siblings, a little sister and an older brother. Both my parents were Caribbean immigrants. We grew up with that culture mixed with the Miami culture. We traveled a lot back and forth to Jamaica. When things got tough for my mom, we lived in Jamaica with my grandmother for a few years,” she described memories from her childhood. “I began writing when I was really young and I won a few writing contest in elementary school. Writing was always a passion for me. I wrote songs, poetry, and generally the same thing I’m doing. Writing has always been my creative outlet.”
Disclosing a little more backstory, Angeli was nurtured by her maternal grandmother, who is a prophet. She is the one that ultimately taught Angeli how to tap into her transcendent side, to become more knowledgeable and evolved.
Recently, Angeli had a near death experience that really offered clarity to her purpose. “I developed an allergy to a particular medicine and I almost died. This happened in October. My kidneys shut down and everything. I’ve never been allergic to anything, so to have that happen, that was pretty scary.”
Angeli enjoys weighty books that require inner reflection. For instance, she loves manuscripts written by J. California Cooper (When Life is Short But Why?), Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now) and Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist).
She is inspired and encouraged by her mom, a woman that empowers and leads by example. “I always saw my mom working. She was always working hard, taking care of us. I have a poem that I wrote for single moms called “Matriarch.” I have a grandmother, and she was a single mom. My great grandmother was a single mother, as well as her mother, and so on. In this poem, it talks about generational curses...."
Now, Angeli is a single mother raising two daughters ages five and eight. She’s trying to break the unyielding cycle, that was set long before she was born.
In regards to women and mental health awareness, Angeli has a section dedicated to the Queens. “It’s about guidance and leaning into and onto other sisters," she explains compassionately. "It’s about a sisterhood. Not just that, but your ancestors, too. I talk about the path already set for us, and that’s just the path we go through. There are things that we must go through to get to our purpose, and we figure it out, so we are able to help others. If you trust that and lean into faith, you’ll stop feeling like it’s you against the world, and you will know that there is help for you that’s seen and unseen. I want women to focus on that section. That helped me a lot.”
The book abetted Angeli to step up and see things through clearer lenses. It allowed her to activate self-love, where the outside, and negative voices from the world, were muted.
The abounding young woman created the Melanin Mermaid in 2016, which is a unrefined, international, skincare line. Angeli revolutionized the online store. She also carries metaphysical items such as crystals, sage, and incents.
“I didn’t want to sell anything pre-made because that would defeat the purpose. The goal is to heal people,” she remarks.
The social media influencer already had a strong following from modeling as well as her blog, so she’s marketable regardless.
Currently, Angeli is balancing college and business with splendid perseverance. Though it’s not easy, she continues to follow her musings. She is pursuing a masters in psychology, and she’s made it to her final year as a scholar, the finishing point of her educational goalmouth.
“It’s okay to do more than one thing,” she says. "I saw Tyler Perry say that people are not successful because they have their hands in too many different things. He worked in plays for ten years before one of them actually took off. I understand what he’s saying but at the same time, he also had jobs besides that. I think it’s okay to be a serial entrepreneur. Nobody needs to be boxed it. If you want to do something, just do it."
The writer and momprenuer said that if she could go back and whisper knowledge to her younger self, she’d say, “Relax, and enjoy Gods journey.”
