Dessa in Conversation with Anna Celenza

Description

Join the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute as Dessa reads from her newly released poetry collection, Tits on the Moon, and discusses her latest music and work as the host of Deeply Human, a podcast created by the BBC and American Public Media. Reception and book signing to follow.

Singer, rapper, and writer Dessa has made a career of bucking genres and defying expectations—her résumé 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.

Anna Celenza is the author of eight award-winning children's books, including Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Beethoven's Heroic Symphony, and Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite. She has also published six scholarly books, most recently Jazz Italian Style (winner of the Bridge Book Prize) and The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin. Her current book project, Music that Changed America, is under contract with W.W. Norton. Trained as a musicologist, Celenza holds a joint appointment with the Writing Seminars and Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University.