MnIndy Q&A: Doomtree’s Dessa on poetry and politics in ’09

Dessa of Doomtree. Photo courtesy of Bo Hakala

Whenever Dessa, perhaps best known as part of the Minneapolis-based hip-hop crew Doomtree, finishes a big project, she cuts her hair and makes a donation to Locks of Love, an organization that makes hairpieces for kids dealing with long-term medical problems.

Given how big 2008 was for Dessa and Doomtree, this writer, emcee and singer probably ought to be bald: Doomtree released its first “official” record featuring the entire crew, the group’s annual December “Blowout” at First Avenue was just that, and — the reason her hair was recently lopped off — Dessa completed a book of essays and poems, due for an early ’09 release (all while keeping a teaching job at McNally Smith College and hosting the occasional trivia night at the Nomad Pub). I caught up with her via e-mail to see what kind of year she hopes 2009 will be.

Doomtree has never shied away from “politics,” but (aside from playing at an Obama fundraiser at the Turf Club) you haven’t been particularly focused on electoral politics. How will you or the group be “political” in the (mostly) non-electoral year of 2009?

Doomtree is a collective of solo musicians who’ve founded a business to promote their art. Politics sometimes appear in our music because political issues and policy effect in our lives. But we certainly don’t have an explicitly political agenda. In 2009, as in all the years before, we’ll make songs about the stuff that moves us.

You’ve been known to donate your hair to Locks of Love every time you finish a big project, giving some four feet to mark the publication of your new book. Do you believe the political is personal — and, if so, how will you continue enacting it in ’09? Also, any big hair-cut plans/projects expected in the coming year?

With any luck, my hair won’t be long enough to cut by the time my next project is released. I cut it this month to mark the release of my book, Spiral Bound.  Next up: my full length album. I’ve been recording for what feels like years (because it was).

To answer your question about the potential intersect between ‘the personal’ and ‘the political’… Yes, they seem related to me. The political arena often seems to determine what kind of institutional support we give to pretty personal choices. We give tax breaks to support some kinds of behavior and we use regulation as a disincentive for other behaviors. Gay marriage and small farms come to mind.

My favorite art blog, C-Monster, lists Things from ’08 that we don’t want to deal with in ’09 (stories about the death of print, Obama art, art about excrement, etc.). If you were to create such a list, what might a few items on it be? Or, since you’re a poet, what words/phrases would you like to see go away in the next 12 months? (For me: “Go rogue” and “Lulz.”)

Words I’d love to lose:

Brah (from the San Diego school of talk)

Boomers (as slang for mushrooms–what was wrong with ‘shrooms’?)

Thinking outside the box (to use this phrase is to be stapled into a very tired box)

Photo: Bo Hakala