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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You may know her from Black Panther, where she was director of photography. Now, Rachel Morrison is the first woman ever nominated for an Academy Award in cinematography, for her work on Mudbound. -
A new book by Kevin Allocca, YouTube's head of culture and trends, breaks down the world of viral videos. From fans of elevators to make-your-own-slime videos, online communities that form around niche interests are as vital as the videos themselves.
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The woman in the famed "Rosie the Riveter" poster has died. Naomi Parker-Fraley was 96. After years of scholarship and conflicting claims, she was believed to be the real Rosie.
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The punching bags hang in the gallery as apart of an interactive exhibit. Each bag bears the face of a controversial world leader. People are encouraged to punch the bags to release negative emotions.
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Efforts to eliminate harassment in the workplace target a site where couples tend to meet and fall in love — but also a place where power can be abused. -
Simeon Saunders Booker, Jr., risked his life to cover the civil rights movement in the 1950s and '60s for Jet and Ebony magazines. He was the first black reporter hired by The Washington Post. Roy Reed covered the movement for The New York Times and was tear-gassed covering the Bloody Sunday marchers. Booker, 99, and Reed, 87, died on Sunday.
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Nearly a third of transgender people responding to an NPR poll say they have no regular access to health care. Very few medical offices are prepared to care for people who have transitioned. -
It took until adulthood for Bonnie Morales, the daughter of immigrant Russian Jews, to appreciate the food of her childhood. Now she owns a popular Oregon restaurant and has released a new cookbook. -
Legendary director Takashi Miike's new film, Blade of the Immortal, is the filmmaker's 100th movie. For someone known for totally bonkers violence, this movie is even more bananas and is being touted as the most over-the-top samurai movie ever made.
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A bird at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., had a beak that was so worn down that he could not catch bugs to eat. The skeleton of an ancestor and a 3-D printer came to the rescue.
