Neda Ulaby
Neda Ulaby reports on arts, entertainment, and cultural trends for NPR's Arts Desk.
Scouring the various and often overlapping worlds of art, music, television, film, new media and literature, Ulaby's stories reflect political and economic realities, cultural issues, obsessions and transitions.
A twenty-year veteran of NPR, Ulaby started as a temporary production assistant on the cultural desk, opening mail, booking interviews and cutting tape with razor blades. Over the years, she's also worked as a producer and editor and won a Gracie award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation for hosting a podcast of NPR's best arts stories.
Ulaby also hosted the Emmy-award winning public television series Arab American Stories in 2012 and earned a 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan. She's also been chosen for fellowships at the Getty Arts Journalism Program at USC Annenberg and the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism.
Before coming to NPR, Ulaby worked as managing editor of Chicago's Windy City Times and co-hosted a local radio program, What's Coming Out at the Movies. A former doctoral student in English literature, Ulaby has contributed to academic journals and taught classes in the humanities at the University of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University and at high schools serving at-risk students.
Ulaby worked as an intern for the features desk of the Topeka Capital-Journal after graduating from Bryn Mawr College. But her first appearance in print was when she was only four days old. She was pictured on the front page of the New York Times, as a refugee, when she and her parents were evacuated from Amman, Jordan, during the conflict known as Black September.
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A fire in Avalon, Miss., destroyed the museum dedicated to singer and guitarist John Hurt, and erases one of the last sites marking the community's history as a formerly all-Black town.
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A high school teacher in Houston has a library in her classroom of books she's not supposed to have, per state legislation. Students say she's helping them survive. (Story aired on ATC on 1/29/24.)
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There was a time when movies about people of faith were wildly popular. A new study surveyed 10,000 people in 11 countries about faith on screen. It's getting attention in Hollywood and beyond.
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Robie Harris' book about sexuality for kids called It's Perfectly Normal was often banned, but has sold more than a million copies. Harris died last month at 83 years old.
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Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, has threatened to remove all of the music it owns from TikTok, unless the streaming platform agrees to more favorable terms. -
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded two grants totaling more than $5.7 million to support the organization's Poet Laureates as well as a national alliance of organizations promoting poetry. -
One of the most prestigious awards in American music, the Gershwin Prize recognizes musicians with a lifetime of contributions to popular songs. This year's winners are Elton John and Bernie Taupin. -
A teacher at a public school near Houston has a secret classroom bookshelf largely made up of challenged titles. Many of the books deal with race, sex and gender. -
Fans were quick to point out: A pair of charismatic, smart, girl-power entertainment figures are up for the biggest prize in the industry. And one of the biggest nominations goes to ... Ken? -
For Dry January, a former pop critic for The New Yorker suggests great songs about not drinking. Many are by musicians who have been sober for decades.
