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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The composer has been lauded for decades over his deeply affective music; director Alejandro González Iñárritu, composer Hildur Guðnadóttir and more join us to explain why. -
Odesa in Ukraine has been added to the cultural sites that UNESCO is highlighting. Also being included are ancient sites in Lebanon and Yemen.
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Gina Lollobrigida melted the hearts of major stars in the 1950s and '60s: Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster. She was a voluptuous brunette with captivating brown eyes.
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Legendary Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida has died at age 95. The star was often compared to Marilyn Monroe.
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The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music recounts the story of Flack's father finding her a beat-up, old, upright in a junkyard — a treasure that led to a life in music.
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PEN America and two other free speech groups are calling for school officials in Florida to reinstate a high school production of Paula Vogel's Indecent, a play that is itself about censorship.
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The annual Abortion Onscreen report says more TV shows had abortion plotlines than previous years and that writers are doing slightly better job reflecting reality.
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Playing competitive youth soccer can cost families a small fortune, excluding kids who might excel at the sport. There are efforts around the country to get more kids in the game.
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Emmy-winning actress Kirstie Alley, known for starring in "Cheers," died Monday at age 71.
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Amy Grant, George Clooney, Gladys Knight, U2 and Tania León attended a dinner at the U.S. State Department and a gala tribute event. The 45th annual Kennedy Center Honors airs on CBS later this month.
