Biography

Mello Ayo (also known as Mel White) is a creative alchemist whose chosen purpose is to be a living masterpiece so that he in turn can become the source of other masterpieces. A multidimensional creative thinker, Mello Ayo, after a thirty-year career in the public sector is entering his second act to pursue an eclectic range of endeavours as a Writer, Poet/Performer, Advocate, Consultant and Speaker. Common to all of his pursuits is his steadfast commitment to transform, uplift, inspire and to connect with others through active listening and deep engagement.

As an artist, Mello uses words, sounds, and images (or whatever he can get his hands on) to celebrate and to convey insightful messages. His photography and visual art forms speak for themselves. Inspired by the works of the mystic poets Rumi and Kahlil Gibran, and the works of Langston Hughes, James Baldwin and Maya Angelou, Mello’s poems and performances are riveting.

Born in Jamaica in the town of Falmouth, Trelawny, and raised in the salubrious hills of Brown’s Town in the parish of St. Ann, Mello Ayo presently lives in Toronto, Canada. He grew up in a hillside rural community by the name of Orange Hill, a beautiful part of the Jamaican landscape. As he describes it, the mindscape of Orange Hill was comprised of a motley collection of individuals and families engaged in an ongoing struggle to be free; they owned little but loved much; the land was poor but the people were rich with energy, charm and intellect. Their way of life was, at times, wretched, but beautiful in so many other ways. These are the people, ordinary and extraordinary, common and unsung, illustrious and courageous folks, who have helped to inform and inspire his work. A graduate of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, and of the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, Mello has many years to his credit as a public service professional as a manager and leader in the justice sector with a specialty in organizational change and effectiveness, anti-racism and human rights. Unflinching commitment to truth, compassion for others, love for innovation and ideas, consensus in the pursuit of excellence, and having a core value of integrity are just a few of his more outstanding hallmarks.

Mello has several unpublished manuscripts in progress including non-fictional academic and scholastic works. His most recent publication is I AM Brother Oji, a biography of one of the Royal Ontario Museum 1990 protesters (ROM11), Adisa S. Oji.