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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The National Trust's annual list includes Eatonville, the all-Black Florida town memorialized by Zora Neale Hurston, Alaska's Sitka Tlingit Clan houses, and the home of country singer Cindy Walker. -
Taylor Swift, whose latest album is now the first to surpass one billion Spotify streams in a single week, has smashed another record as well. -
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. -
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. -
The pop crooner was behind some of the biggest power ballads of the 1970s and '80s. His wife said he died in his sleep. -
The Apollo Chamber Players in Houston, Texas, create concerts in response to book banning, the refugee crisis, the war in Gaza and other world events. Thousands of people attend their performances. -
TikTok has removed all Universal Music Group music from its platform, according to a spokesperson for the company. UMG argues, among other things, that TikTok is not compensating its artists fairly.
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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. -
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. -
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.
