April 6: Dessa in Concert

Thursday, April 6, 2023
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Elias J. Halling Recital Hall

Minnesota State University, Mankato Department of Music & Entertainment Industries News Release

MANKATO, Minn. – Minnesota State University, Mankato’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences welcomes rapper, writer and public speaker Dessa to the Minnesota Storyteller artist-in-residence and performance series. Dessa will be in residence at Minnesota State Mankato from Thursday, April 6 through Friday, April 7.

She will perform a public concert Thursday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Elias J. Halling Recital Hall of the Earley Center for Performing Arts, 320 Maywood Ave. Music industry graduate Jada LaFrance will open the show.

The Minnesota Storyteller series originated in spring 2019 and is supported by the Nadine B. Andreas Endowment fund. The series features Minnesota artists who are invited to campus for a multi-day residency which includes time in the University’s various college classrooms and an intimate evening concert. Students get the opportunity to hear the artist’s stories and experiences. Students can also ask questions and get feedback about various projects on which they are working.

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. She contributed to the #1 album, "The Hamilton Mixtape," and the RBG documentary; her track, “Congratulations,” has notched over 20 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 U.S.; and a TED Talk about her science experiment on how to fall out of love.  She’s also the host of Deeply Human, a podcast created by the BBC and American Public Media. Dessa has been covered by Pitchfork, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal amongst others. The LA Times says she “sounds like no one else.” NPR’s All Songs Considered calls her “a national treasure.” The Utne Reader called her a “one-woman powerhouse.” On the stage and on the page, Dessa’s style is defined by ferocity, wit, tenderness, and candor.

General admission for the concert is $20 in advance, $25 day of the show. For more information visit link.mnsu.edu/musictickets or contact Dale Haefner in the Performance Series office, (507) 389-5549.