If you haven’t heard of “Dessa Darling” yet, you probably will soon. Part of the Doomtree hip hop collective based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dessa’s talents range from poetry to prose, rap to memoir. Her performance and reading last night at Brooklyn’s Union Pool bar (or, as she puts it, the “romantic, boozy venue”), was unprecedented. She called it one of the best shows of her career. Surprisingly, the turnout was average, though the buzz was tangible and the audience ecstatic. It felt precisely like the beginning of a movement- wild, nervous, and unedited. Dessa read from her short collection of non-fiction, Spiral Bound, and performed pieces from her forthcoming album.
Witty, philosophical, and confident, Dessa’s work purviews only the heaviest of topics: death, love, life, and alcohol. “Life is a clumsy instrument” she writes “the heavy key to wind a spring./Life is also, incidentally,/the only good distraction/from my impending death”. Her words were written to be read aloud, and have a precise, on-point rhythm that is adept and soulful. At almost every turn she reveals her spoken word origins, which are complimented by her deep, throaty vocals.
“That’s it I guess” she said after her last song, as the crowd pleaded for more. “I’ll be out back on the stoop smoking candied cigarettes”.
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