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 new single, "Primrose Hill," was co-written by Sean Ono Lennon and James McCartney, the youngest sons of Beatles musicians John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
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Professors and students at the University of South Florida mapped pitch, rhythm and duration to data about algae blooms and depletion of coral reefs to create an original composition.
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The pop crooner was behind some of the biggest power ballads of the 1970s and '80s. His wife said he died in his sleep.
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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.
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Giants of the arts world left us this year: We look back on the legacies of Harry Belafonte, Tina Turner, Sinéad O'Connor, Paul Reubens (aka Pee-wee Herman), Richard Roundtree, Norman Lear and more.
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Every year, the Librarian of Congress selects 25 movies to be added to the National Film Registry. This year, the list included Home Alone and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
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Shane MacGowan was a famously hard-drinking but brilliant musician who shot to fame in the 1980s with the folk punk band The Pogues.
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CBS first aired the televised holiday special in 1973. The message still shines, but some characters and scenes feel a little dated.
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O'Connor, who had one of the biggest hits of the early 1990s with her version of "Nothing Compares 2 U," became as well known for her political convictions and the tumult in her life as for her songs.
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The National Endowment for the Arts has selected Terence Blanchard, Willard Jenkins, Amina Claudine Myers and Gary Bartz for the prestigious honor.
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Arkin knew from childhood that he wanted to be an actor, and he spent a lifetime performing — the Academy Award winner appeared in more than 100 films in a career spanning over seven decades.
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The Canadian singer-songwriter wrote classics like "If You Could Read My Mind," "Early Morning Rain" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."