Allison Keyes
Allison Keyes is an award-winning journalist with almost 20 years of experience in print, radio, and television. She has been reporting for NPR's national desk since October 2005. Her reports can be heard on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition Sunday.
Keyes coverage includes news and features on a wide variety of topics. "I've done everything from interviewing musician Dave Brubeck to profiling a group of kids in Harlem that are learning responsibility and getting educational opportunities from an Ice Hockey league, to hanging out with a group of black cowboys in Brooklyn who are keeping the tradition alive." Her reports include award-winning coverage of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York, coverage of the changes John Ashcroft sought in the Patriot Act, and the NAACP lawsuit against gun companies.
In 2002 Keyes joined NPR as a reporter and substitute host for The Tavis Smiley Show. She switched to News and Notes when it launched in January 2005. Keyes enjoyed the unique opportunity News & Notes gave her to cover events that affect communities of color on a national level. "Most news outlets only bother to cover crime and the predictable museum opening or occasional community protest," she said. "But people have a right to know what's going on and how it will affect them and their communities."
In addition to working with NPR, Keyes occasionally writes and produces segments for the ABC News shows Good Morning America and World News Tonight.
Keyes is familiar with public radio, having worked intermittently for NPR since 1995. She also spent a little less than a year hosting and covering City Hall and politics for WNYC Radio. Prior to that, she spent several years at WCBS Newsradio 880.
Keyes' eyewitness reports on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York earned her the Newswoman's Club of New York 2002 Front Page Award for Breaking News, and, along with WCBS Newsradio staff, the New York State Associated Press Broadcast Award for Breaking News and Continuing Coverage. Her report on the funeral of Patrick Dorismond earned her the National Association of Black Journalists' 2001 Radio News Award.
In addition to radio, Keyes has worked in cable television and print. She has reported for Black Enterprise Magazine, co-authored two African-American history books as well as the African American Heritage Perpetual Calendar, and has written profiles for various magazines and Internet news outlets in Chicago and New York.
Keyes got her start in radio at NPR member station WBEZ in Chicago, IL, in 1988 as an assistant news director, anchor, and reporter. She graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University with a degree in English and journalism. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Inc. and the National Association of Black Journalists.
When not on the air, Keyes can be found singing jazz, listening to opera, or hanging out with her very, very large cat.
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These apps superimpose characteristics the developer thinks relate to those ethnic groups. An online petition is urging Google to remove the apps from its store, saying they reinforce racist stereotypes. -
Bipartisan support in the Illinois Senate helped pass legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses. But critics say granting driving rights to people in the country illegally is putting the cart before the horse. -
The community supported President Obama in 2008, and polls show most are doing so this time around. But some of those voters are concerned about the way Obama has handled issues important to Arab-Americans.
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Neil Armstrong, who became the first man on the moon, is remembered not just for his historic walk, but also his sense of humor and humility. Fellow astronaut Rusty Schweickart says Armstrong will also be remembered as "a symbol of what humanity can do when it sets its mind to it." -
HIV/AIDs has taken a disproportionate toll on the black community in Washington, D.C. Although the disease still faces a stigma in the faith community, pastors and advocates say things are much better than they were in the past.
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Massachusetts physician Jill Stein won her party's nomination for president of the United States in Baltimore on Saturday. Stein calls her platform the Green New Deal, and it promises a series of emergency reforms. -
American athlete Allyson Felix is still weighing which events she'll focus on in London this summer. She already has two Olympic silver medals plus a relay gold. Now she wants an individual gold. To get it, she'll have to beat her arch-rival: Jamaica's Veronica Campbell Brown. -
The burning of Qurans by the U.S. military in Afghanistan has led to days of rioting by Muslims who say it was a desecration of their holy book and an affront to Islam. Many faiths prescribe specific rituals for disposing of their sacred texts. -
At the groundbreaking on the National Mall on Wednesday, President Obama said the newest Smithsonian museum has been "a long time coming" and will serve "not just as a record of tragedy, but as a celebration of life." The National Museum of African American History and Culture is expected to open in 2015.
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The nation is observing the birthday of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On Monday, there will be a ceremony at the new memorial on the National Mall. On Sunday, King's real birthday, his family, civil rights leaders and those who wanted to honor what he stood for, turned out to talk about his legacy.
