Alanis Morissette to be Featured at Museum of Pop Culture's Pop Conference 2020

To kick off "Forever Young: Popular Music and Youth Across the Ages"-this year's special virtual version of Museum of Pop Culture's Pop Conference 2020, spanning three consecutive weeks-MoPOP today announced that the Conference keynote conversation would feature seven-time GRAMMY® Award-winning singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette. MoPOP's annual Pop Conference, first held in 2002, mixes together ambitious music discourse of every kind to bring academics, critics, musicians, and dedicated fans into a collective conversation. This year's conference was delayed this past spring due to the on-going global health crisis, but returns this month in a purely digital format. Complete program details can be found at www.MoPOP.org/PopCon.

Pop Con 2020 gets underway on Wednesday, September 9 with a number of dynamic panel discussions on topics ranging from "The Platforms of Youth: Meme-ing, Marketing & Streaming" and "Rebel Girls & Grown Women" to "¡Todas! Means All!: The past, present, and futures of Todas Las Edades/All-Ages spaces in Latinxs communities" and "No Place Like Homo: Queer Transformations in Youth."

On Thursday, September 10 at 3:00 p.m. PT, moderator Ann Powers (writer, author, NPR music) will be joined by Alanis Morrissette for a freewheeling and candid conversation about the connections between music and nostalgia, youth, wisdom and freedom in a historic year marked by profound inequality and urgent activism. This conversation will be presented in conjunction with NPR Music, supported by Critical Minded, with the keynote produced by Jason King.

"This year's Pop Conference is an exploration and celebration of youth across generations, locations, and disparate contexts; listening with intensity to what is behind the urgent call we've heard from multiple artists to remain 'forever young,'" said MoPOP Manager of Public Engagement Robert Rutherford. "There is no pop music without youth, and no youth without pop music."

Thanks to the generous support of Critical Minded, all Pop Con programming is free of charge but advance registration is required. For a complete list of Pop Con programming, visit www.MoPOP.org/PopCon.

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

Pop Conference, now in its 19th year, has been the premier music-writing and popular music studies conference since 2002. This year's theme is "Forever Young: Popular Music and Youth Across the Ages," and the conference is organized by writer/USC professor Karen Tongson. It takes place online, over the course of three weeks (September 9-24). Admission to the online panels and roundtables is free this year with registration.

Now in its 20th year, the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) is a leading-edge nonprofit museum in Seattle, dedicated to the ideas and risk-taking that fuel contemporary pop culture. With a mission to make creative expression a life-changing force by offering experiences that inspire and connect our communities, MoPOP reaches multigenerational audiences through our collections, exhibitions, educational programs and community partnerships. At MoPOP, artists, audiences, and ideas converge, bringing understanding, interpretation, and scholarship to the pop culture of our time. For more information, visit www.MoPOP.org

For more than a decade, NPR Music's robust music journalism and award-winning original video programming has delighted millions of music fans from all genres. NPR Music collaborates with NPR's news magazines, public radio Member stations and the passionate listener community to celebrate exceptional music and discover emerging artists. Visit NPRMusic.org to find the complete Tiny Desk concert series, music feature stories, extensive archives of performances, interviews and music reviews. Connect with NPR Music on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

This year's Pop Conference is supported by Critical Minded, a granting and learning initiative cofounded by The Nathan Cummings Foundation and The Ford Foundation to support cultural critics of color in the United States, where they are underrepresented in the coverage of all artistic disciplines.

Ann Powers is a critic and correspondent for NPR Music. She is the author of several books, most recently Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music (Dey Street, 2017). She lives in Nashville and is currently working on a critical biography of Joni Mitchell.

Since 1995, Alanis Morissette's deeply expressive music and performances have earned vast critical praise. Morissette's 1995 debut, JAGGED LITTLE PILL, has been followed by nine more eclectic and acclaimed albums. She has contributed musically to theatrical releases and acted on the big and small screen. Outside of entertainment, she is an avid supporter of female empowerment, as well as spiritual, psychological, and physical wellness. On December 5, 2019, the JAGGED LITTLE PILL musical made its Broadway debut at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City. Most recently, Morissette released her ninth studio album, Such Pretty Forks In The Road.

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