2020-10-05

Dessa

Dessa (New York City, New York/Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota and now splitting time between Minneapolis and New York, singer, rapper, and writer Dessa has made a career of bucking genres and defying expectations—her resume as a musician includes performances at Lollapalooza and Glastonbury, co-compositions for 100-voice choir, performances with the Minnesota Orchestra, and Top 200 entries on the Billboard charts. She contributed to the #1 album The Hamilton Mixtape; her track, “Congratulations,” has notched over 16 million streams. As a writer, she’s been published by The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler, broadcast by Minnesota Public Radio, and published a memoir-in-essays (My Own Devices, 2018) in addition to two literary collections. As a speaker, Dessa has delivered keynote speeches and presentations on art, science, and entrepreneurship; guest lectures at universities and colleges across the US; and a TED talk about her science experiment on how to fall out of love. She’s been covered by Pitchfork, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal among others.  Interviewed by Holly Hobbs, 10/05/2020.

Holly Hobbs

Music; United States; Covid-19 Pandemic

Minneapolis, Minnesota
New York City, New York

Musicians in America during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Society for Ethnomusicology