Dessa: Nobel Peace Prize Forum Speech (Video)

Last week Dessa spoke at Augsburg College at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum. Her presentation, titled “Mic Lines: Art, Ethics, and their Contested Connections," was a discussion on ethical and moral issues surrounding rappers and the content they choose to include in their lyrics. Her 45-minute speech includes discussions of social, political and philanthropic work by local and national artists, the intertwined nature of hip-hop and community activism, as well as discourse on the moral obligations of rappers as role models, common defenses of misogynistic/violent lyrical content, and the reflections on the power of musicians to influence individual behavior. If you're remotely interested in any of these topics, or even if you're not, I strongly recommend watching this.

The speech is followed by a question and answer session which I have not viewed yet, as well as a performance from Aby Wolf (Dessa did not sing because her voice was on the mend from the No Kings tour).