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Founder and Curator of a bricks and mortar art gallery dedicated to the vulva/ yoni, Yoni Mudra Art Gallery in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. She is also the Executive Producer of an arts collective called Apt To Be Rapt Creative and manages the productions of Turyatita Records. Apt to be Rapt curates artist collaborations for transformative social change arts projects.Apt to be Rapt produced a 20-track album of rap and spoken word poetry backed by soul music called 'Budding Orchid Apartheid'. This album examines the deleterious impact of female genital mutilation (FGM) in order to build greater public awareness and mobilization around #endFGM advocacy. It was released in May 2025 and is funded by the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.Melissa is also an independent recording artist creating albums of spoken word poetry infused with neo-soul, lofi, and hip hop beats. As a fine artist, she creates acrylic and oil paintings, and has been represented by the M.A.D.S Art Gallery in Milan and the Borderless Exhibit curated by the Norwegian Cultural Center where she gave a talk on art and social change. She has a made-to-order wearable art clothing line made sustainably through Le Galeriste in Montreal.Prior to these roles, Melissa worked as a researcher of transnational activism, youth studies, citizenship, militarism, and feminist labor and entrepreneurship studies. She still sees herself as a political sociologist and regularly uses the skills she gained in academia to shape the direction and scope of her art-based activities.