A forerunner in the UK arts industry, Melanie has been furthering the art of literature, intersectional practice and oracy, for 25 years.

As a curator, consultant and mentor in the creative industries, she has consistently pushed for greater diversity in the arts, with a focus on the narratives of race, class, mixed-race identities and intersectionality.  She has advocated for freelancers and has the lived experience of being one for most of her working life. Her individual yet highly collaborative and interdisciplinary practice has elicited a rich archive of events and occasions for the creative industries ecosystem.

She’s founder and Creative Director/Curator of independent organisation Renaissance One and the long-running spoken word project Tilt, both of which have made regular use of live events, tours and commissions to highlight the diverse canons of British and international literature and orature.

Much of Melanie’s practice is about nurturing relationships with artists and creative practitioners over many years and across projects. Examples of these include a British Writing Showcase for Miami Book Fair International , the project Tongue Fu Flicks co-developed with Chris Redmond and his Tongue Fu organisation for BBC/Arts Council England’s The Space, a collaboration with Chris Ofili on Freedom One Day, a book and spoken word event, and collaborations with Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad, Southbank Centre in London and Bluecoat, Liverpool as well as long-standing relationships with African and Caribbean communities in Hull, Leeds, Bristol, London and Leicester, with whom events, socials and activities are developed in partnership.

In 2020 she received an Honorary Fellowship from The Royal Society of Literature. In 2008, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

From 2021 to 2022, she was the Curator & Caribbean Community Engagement Consultant for UP Projects who were appointed by the Government and the Windrush Commemoration Committee chaired by Baroness Floella Benjamin to commission the national Windrush Monument which was unveiled in June 2022.

Her large scale projects have included Testing Ground a series of industry panels, creativity talks and 50 one-to-one mentoring sessions to practitioners around England; and The Independence Project,  twenty events exploring autonomy and independence, including a one-day festival at the British Library. 

Notable initiatives include curating a series of Caribbean festivals of literature and culture, London Is The Place For Me with the British Library, talks and masterclasses on leadership and diversity (Speaking Art and Life), a guest curator role for the Bronte Parsonage and Museum on the theme of 'other' / otherness through a creative walk, and talks (Emily Speaks); a curator role for the People of Letters Response Gallery for the Museum of Colour (with Pitt Rivers Museum) for which she commissioned ten writers and one composer including Will Harris, Degna Stone, Daljit Nagra and Jay Bernard; producing tours, book launches and events for John Agard, Bernardine Evaristo OBE, Leone Ross, Kei Miller, Patience Agbabi, Caryl Phillips, Gary Younge, Shara McCallum, the late Michael Horovitz and Shivanee Ramlochan.

Talks presented from 2022 to 2026 have included This, That and the Other for the Taking The Mic: Black British Poetry Since 1965 Conference, a conversation with artist Sonia Barrett for her Rush Me project (Up Projects), a podcast on intersectionality with poet Chérie Taylor Battiste, a talk at the Educating Susan Conference , a guest lecturer at the University of Leicester and guest speaker at The Middle Way Programme’s Platform Conference.

From 2021 to 2024, Melanie collaborated with Australian-based arts consultant Kath Melbourne to deliver two phases of the THIS IS WHO WE ARE Mentoring Programme (Reframing The Margins) that has been open to global majority women based in the UK and Australia. The project formed part of the British Council’s UK-Australia Season and created live events, gatherings and an online festival. The initial group has evolved into a coterie of intersectional and intergenerational womxn artists and creatives who share knowledge, friendship and solidarity across borders.