
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.
-
Berry was central to the development of rock 'n' roll, with indelible hits like "Maybelline," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B. Goode."
-
-
The fiery Washington, D.C., politician who was famously re-elected after going to jail for crack cocaine possession, has died after months of battling a number of health issues. He was 78.
-
The Smithsonian is bringing back the funk. Parliament-Funkadelic's iconic stage prop, which would descend to the stage in a blaze of flashing lights, will anchor a new exhibit.
-
When Mexican artist Diego Rivera was commissioned to do a mural for Rockefeller Center, some may have wondered whether industrialist tycoon John D. Rockefeller Jr. knew what he was getting into.
-
SNCF, whose subsidiary is bidding on a $6 billion light rail project in Maryland, transported thousands of victims to concentration camps in Nazi-occupied France. The company says it's not obligated.
-
The diary contains handwritten notes by Alfred Rosenberg, a top aide to Adolf Hitler who helped shape Nazi ideology. Sara Bloomfield, director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, says it took 17 years to procure the diary.
-
Many of the canines that have flocked to Manhattan are staying at the Hotel Pennsylvania. And there the pooches are treated like VIPs — very important pooches, that is. From spinach pizza to a doggie concierge, it's a pampered life for a show dog.
-
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.
-
The father of funk has been in court, trying to reclaim ownership of songs like "Atomic Dog."