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 radio and online stories reflect political and economic realities, cultural issues, obsessions and transitions, as well as artistic adventurousness— and awesomeness.
Over the last few years, Ulaby has strengthened NPR's television coverage both in terms of programming and industry coverage and profiled breakout artists such as Ellen Page and Skylar Grey and behind-the-scenes tastemakers ranging from super producer Timbaland to James Schamus, CEO of Focus Features. Her stories have included a series on women record producers, an investigation into exhibitions of plastinated human bodies, and a look at the legacy of gay activist Harvey Milk. Her profiles have brought listeners into the worlds of such performers as Tyler Perry, Ryan Seacrest, Mark Ruffalo, and Courtney Love.
Ulaby has earned multiple fellowships at the Getty Arts Journalism Program at USC Annenberg as well as a fellowship at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism to study youth culture. In addition, Ulaby's weekly podcast of NPR's best arts stories. Culturetopia, won a Gracie award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation.
Joining NPR in 2000, Ulaby was recruited through NPR's Next Generation Radio, and landed a temporary position on the cultural desk as an editorial assistant. She started reporting regularly, augmenting her work with arts coverage for D.C.'s Washington City Paper.
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. Her film reviews and academic articles have been published across the country and internationally. For a time, she edited fiction for The Chicago Review and served on the editing staff of the leading academic journal Critical Inquiry. Ulaby taught classes in the humanities at the University of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University and at high schools serving at-risk students.
A former doctoral student in English literature, Ulaby worked as an intern for the features desk of the Topeka Capital-Journal after graduating from Bryn Mawr College. She was born in Amman, Jordan, and grew up in the idyllic Midwestern college towns of Lawrence, Kansas and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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Amid the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests, Sampson Levingston decided to bring people together by offering tours of African American neighborhoods. He's turned it into a thriving business.
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"He always made people feel like they belonged," says a former Bourdain producer. World Travel: An Irreverent Guide is based on the TV chef's writings and an interview conducted just before his death. -
Whither the long-running, primetime scripted show — in an upended television landscape that's changed not only the way we watch TV, but the way stories are told and shows are sold.
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One of the world's mightiest museums has made much of its vast collection available online. The Louvre steers digital visitors well beyond marquee works like the Mona Lisa to reveal hidden treasures.
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The lautenwerck, an instrument like a lute and a harpsichord, almost went extinct in the 19th century, but forensic musicologists are bringing it back to life.
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Often referred to as the "Nobel Prize of Architecture," this year's Pritzker was awarded to Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, a design pair who emphasize reuse and equitable housing.
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Jeff Sedlik's Miles Davis portrait shows up all over the Internet, rarely with his permission, and there's not much he can do to protect himself. Enter the CASE Act, which sounds dull ... but isn't.
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Larry Flynt was a pornographer whose Supreme Court case in 1988 made him a free speech folk hero. Admire him, despise him — or both — Flynt left a singular mark on culture and politics.
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The film is first Sudanese feature made in 20 years, and only the seventh ever to come from the country. It's being submitted for consideration for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
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Traditionally, red is the color associated with alarm, but in California, Colorado and Ohio the worst COVID-19 tiers are purple. So how did purple become the cautionary color of the pandemic?
