Elizabeth Blair
Elizabeth Blair is a Peabody Award-winning senior producer/reporter on the Arts Desk of NPR News.
Blair produces, edits, and reports arts and cultural segments for NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. In this position, she has reported on a range of topics from arts funding to the MeToo movement. She has profiled renowned artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Mikhail Baryshnikov, explored how old women are represented in fairy tales, and reported the origins of the children's classic Curious George. Among her all-time favorite interviews are actors Octavia Spencer and Andy Serkis, comedians Bill Burr and Hari Kondabolu, the rapper K'Naan, and Cookie Monster (in character).
Blair has overseen several, large-scale series including The NPR 100, which explored landmark musical works of the 20th Century, and In Character, which probed the origins of iconic American fictional characters. Along with her colleagues on the Arts Desk and at NPR Music, Blair curated American Anthem, a major series exploring the origins of songs that uplift, rouse, and unite people around a common theme.
Blair's work has received several honors, including two Peabody Awards and a Gracie. She previously lived in Paris, France, where she co-produced Le Jazz Club From Paris with Dee Dee Bridgewater, and the monthly magazine Postcard From Paris.
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Netflix has acquired The Roald Dahl Story Co. (RDSC), which manages the British author's catalogue. "Human beans" just can't get enough, as Dahl's loveable BFG might say. -
Comedian and actor A.J. Johnson has died at age 55. Johnson starred as Ezal, a homeless man with drug addiction, in Ice Cube's Friday.
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When COVID hit the U.S., writers of The Morning Show on Apple TV+ scrapped a year's worth of work to make the fictional TV show's new season newsworthy.
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Don Everly, half of one of rock and roll's pioneering groups, The Everly Brothers, has died. The musician was known for singing close harmonies with his brother.
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Singer and guitarist Don Everly has died at age 84. The Everly Brothers, his hugely influential duo with his late brother, Phil, was among the first acts inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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The Afghanistan National Institute of Music was a thriving school in Kabul. But the last time the Taliban was in control of the country, all music related activities were strictly forbidden.
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Children's book author and illustrator Jill Murphy created The Worst Witch and The Large Family series, among many others. She was known for capturing a range of human emotions in her whimsical tales.
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Bob Dylan is accused of drugging and sexually abusing a minor in 1965, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday. A Dylan spokesperson denies the claims.
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South-African born director Liesl Tommy says all of her art is political. That includes her new movie Respect starring Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin, focusing on the women in the singer's life.
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Call it fate or an unfortunate coincidence that Dr. Seuss' eco-parable marks its 50th anniversary just as the United Nations releases a report on the dire consequences of human-induced climate change.
