Melissa Perales is a music and film curator, promoter, and consultant from Chicago who has been shaping Berlin’s independent cultural scene since the 1990s. It creates spaces where community, creativity, and justice take center stage.<\/p>\n
In 2004, she founded the concert series M:Soundtrack and, since the pandemic, has made Schokoladen-Mitte her home base\u2014a place where she specifically supports grassroots artists and campaigns for the preservation of small independent venues. As co-founder of Music Pool Berlin, she regularly advises artists, with a particular focus on non-German\/English-speaking creatives who are finding their feet in Berlin’s music scene.<\/p>\n
Over the years, Melissa has initiated and curated numerous projects: the Urban Comfort Food restaurant, the Circles of Confusion underground film festival, and platforms such as the Torstra\u00dfen Festival, We Make Waves, and Night School Berlin. Her work continuously empowers marginalized voices through intersectional, community-oriented formats.<\/p>\n
She is a long-standing board member of *all2gethernow e.V., the initiative behind Music Pool Berlin, which promotes a more inclusive and sustainable music culture.<\/p>\n
Together with filmmaker Sabine Steyer, she runs Supertape Berlin\u2014a music supervision and consulting company where her passion for soundtracks meets storytelling. Her current projects include the transcultural open-air event Durchl\u00fcften at the Humboldt Forum and Caf\u00e9 Chocolat\u2014a concert and community series focusing on Black and Brown artists and DJs in Berlin.<\/p>\n
Melissa has been part of numerous music juries, including the International Music Journalism Awards (#IMJA) at the Reeperbahn Festival, and continues to be committed to fair and inclusive structures in the music world.<\/p>\n
When she’s not supporting others, she creates playlists, throws legendary dinner parties\u2014or is simply Super Mom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"