Curiosity in words and emotional literacy lie at the heart of performance artist Dicky Dutton’s work. Their collaborations with organizations like Aural Compass Projects, Opera Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Choral Arts Society, Wear Yellow Proudly, Cincinnati Opera, and the Nahant Music Festival have highlighted the importance of working toward equity and creative joy in themself and surrounding communities. Recently they have collaborated with the ENA Ensemble as librettist for “Mercury Admits:” a set of new songs for soprano and cello commissioned for the Serial Opera & New Songs Series. Their words have also shared space with The Why Collective’s “Vexations in Time” - a 14 hour long, interdisciplinary performance art piece where Dicky premiered two original works commissioned for the event - “Inconsequential noises break” and “I am in the sun.” Additionally, their poetry has been set and premiered by partner and collaborator, Michael Lewis, in their story-telling recital Before Body Meets Earth co-created alongside soprano, Chelsea Fingal DeSouza, and director, Ellen Jackson. Through a wide variety of composers and poets, Before Body Meets Earth blends the formal classical recital with devised theater to tell a story of two people struggling to find the empathy to connect while attending couple’s therapy. Dicky remains active as a vocalist in the Opera Philadelphia Opera Chorus, the Philadelphia Chorale Arts Society, and as music-director and cantor for the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church of Frankford, PA. Opera Philadelphia additionally employs them to work as a teaching artist and as on-site coordinator for T-VOCE where they guide young singers and story-makers through musicianship and creativity-building residencies. Off the stage, Dicky works with Aural Compass Projects as administrative assistant and creator/project manager of the organization’s Emerging Composer’s Competition and all associated events. Most mornings they can be found seated by their bunnies searching for juicy words before a day of teaching and singing in the greater Philadelphia area.