Dessa opens her notebooks for Spiral Bound

When a rapper who raps like a writer puts out a collection of essays, she runs the risk of becoming known more as a writer than a rapper, a risk Dessa of Doomtree is willing to take. Spiral Bound is both the title of the book and an apt descriptor of the essays and poems in it. It's a surprisingly slim volume: six pieces of narrative non-fiction and four poems, all tightly wound and pulled, it seems safe to assume, from the stacks of college-ruled notebooks Dessa surely has stashed under her bed.

At their best, the stories are objective and succinct in their honesty, and full of telling observations. Dessa touches on her family, anxiety, unquiet mind, and travel, and although much of it is personal history, and told straightforwardly enough to be accessible and not narrowly linked to Dessa’s lone experience. In “The Leviathan,” she expands a travelogue that starts with a pun—she meets a man named Leif, pronounced “Life.” In describing her first night with him, Dessa writes, “Later that night, in a rented hostel bed, and without much ceremony, we had sex. Life was pale and lovely but desperately—dangerously—thin. An anatomical sketch on bleached paper.” Dessa’s attachment to the fleeting nature and delicacy of a life lived is the underlying theme of Spiral Bound, one that always seems compelling and timely.

Also on display here is the humor and self-effacing assuredness that allows Dessa to survive in the testosterone-heavy rap world. Though some passages suffer the indignity of being filler built around an observation, Dessa has a great ability to cut through it and get to the point. The poem “My New Purpose” displays a wry undercutting of the self-importance that so many writers and other artistic-types feel, using fewer syllables than a haiku: Without me, / how would my headache / get around? Reading Spiral Bound, you get the sense that Dessa’s headaches are not just her own, but ones shared by her and her friends, not to mention you and your friends, every day.

When she officially releases Spiral Bound at the Guthrie's Dowling Studio this Saturday, she’s making sure that she isn’t doing it alone, gathring a set of musicians and writers to represent both sides of her creative life, including writers John Jodzio and Shane Hawley. Like any tight gang, you expect Doomtree members to be there, represented by Cecil Otter (the most literary of all the Doomtree male members) and DJ Paper Tiger. Steve Marsh of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine will interview Dessa and tease out stories, and more music will be provided by singer-songwriter Jeremy Messersmith, now nearing Twin Cities saturation point, having played everywhere from the 7th Street Entry to NPR to The Current’s kid-friendly Rock The Cradle this winter. He’s an excellent choice of accompaniment, as is fellow local musician Aby Wolf, the way mango salsa is unexpectedly sweet and spicy. Messersmith’s songs contain a taut sensitivity to the lives of his characters, and he can make people weep and want to hold their lovers closer. A relative newcomer, Wolf has a much-acclaimed voice, and her lush evocations should work nicely at tapping into Dessa’s distinct melancholia from a different direction.