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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After weeks of trying to flee Afghanistan, 101 musicians, students and teachers with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music and Zohra Orchestra finally landed in Doha, Qatar on Sunday. -
Libraries, schools, authors and readers are celebrating Banned Books Week. Among the Top 10 most challenged books in the U.S. are The Hate U Give and To Kill A Mockingbird. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
As summer festivals and massive concerts returned this month amid the promise of "hot vax summer," the surge in the delta variant has disrupted plans for carefree live music. -
After making homophobic comments during a performance, rapper DaBaby has been widely criticized and dropped from multiple festivals. The fallout could mark a cultural shift in the music business.
