Interview with 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 PitchforkForbes, and The Wall Street Journal among others.  Interviewed by Holly Hobbs, 10/05/2020.