There is a theorem, due to Kontsevich, which states that the homology of the moduli space of curves can be expressed as the homology of a certain Lie algebra. In this talk I will explain how the homology of a certain compactification of the moduli space, introduced by Kontsevich in his study of Witten's conjectures, can be expressed as the homology of a certain differential graded Lie algebra by deforming Kontsevich's original Lie algebra using a Lie bialgebra structure considered by many authors.