Spanning genres and disciplines, Dessa’s style is defined by tenderness, ferocity, candor, and wit. As a musician, she’s co-composed for large choirs; crowd-surfed at rock clubs; recorded a live album with the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra; and contributed a track to the #1 album The Hamilton Mixtape. Her TED Talk, which recounts her science experiment on how to fall out of love, has notched more than 5 million views. She’s written for The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler; hosted two seasons of a podcast for the BBC; and published several poetry books and literary collections including the memoir-in-essays My Own Devices (Penguin Random House).
Dessa’s musical career began in earnest when she was asked to join Minneapolis’ Doomtree collective, the hip-hop crew known for bold production, charismatic lyricists, and explosive live shows. She started touring hard as a solo act after her 2010 release A Badly Broken Code. Since then, she’s released 5 more full-length albums, working across sounds and styles while keeping her razor-sharp writing front and center.
Live Wire Radio, the Portland-based public radio variety show, joins forces with the Portland Art Museum for an afternoon of roving performances ahead of an evening recording of the program. The event coincides with PAM's monthly Free First Thursday and the Portland Book Festival's expanded programming.
Singer, rapper, and author Dessa will join the Oregon Symphony for an evening of soaring ballads, writerly pop songs, and rap anthems. The concert also will include a series of new monologues, crafted in Dessa’s signature style—true stories told with intellectual rigor, tenderness, candor, and wit. Don’t miss this landmark performance, presented in collaboration with Literary Arts as an extension of the Portland Book Festival.
