her work is both tangible and immersive, making use of performance, soft materials, electronics, computational poetry and collective storytelling. with each piece, she seeks to emulate assertiveness in liminality and longs to speak of be-longing in the endless blackhole of nostalgia.
she is a masters student at the interactive telecommunications program (itp) at tisch, new york university where she’s learning to bridge her passion for taking an active role in the creation of a world she wants to live as an organizer, with designing immersive and tangible experiences that invite others to join in and take up space in their own lives.
prior to itp, melika served as the senior statewide organizer at california immigrant policy center where she focused on fighting detention and deportation while managing the food4all coalition consisting of 145 organizations across the state in order to win food assistance for undocumented californians. her work centered uplifting community members’ stories, research and hosting teach-ins. she has a bachelors degree in sociology with a minor in multimedia journalism from uc berkeley.
in her free time, she loves hosting themed parties, swimming in open waters, adding to her earrings collection and conjuring up new recipes.