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 °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ and Notes when it launched in January 2005. Keyes enjoyed the unique opportunity °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ & 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 °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ shows Good Morning America and World °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ 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 °µºÚ±¬ÁÏradio 880.
Keyes' eyewitness reports on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York earned her the °µºÚ±¬ÁÏwoman's Club of New York 2002 Front Page Award for Breaking °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ, and, along with WCBS °µºÚ±¬ÁÏradio staff, the New York State Associated Press Broadcast Award for Breaking °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ and Continuing Coverage. Her report on the funeral of Patrick Dorismond earned her the National Association of Black Journalists' 2001 Radio °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ 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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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.
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Thousands of wreaths were laid around the country Saturday and at Arlington National Cemetery as part of the 20th anniversary of an effort honoring the nation's veterans for their service. -
The U.S. Air Force is accused of dumping the remains of at least 274 troops in a Virginia landfill. The practice, reportedly stopped in 2008, is now being investigated by the military and a special counsel.
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The U.S. Postal Service is expected to announce Monday that it's moving forward with cuts that it says will save billions of dollars and help avoid bankruptcy.
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The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ancestry.com's World Memory Project allows people to sift online through hundreds of thousands of documents that previously required a painstaking manual search.
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Halloween has become big business, earning at least $7 billion annually for those who make their living trying to scare us. Haunted houses, of course, are one of the biggest players, and NPR's Allison Keyes reports on the challenges of competing for our souls.
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Thousands attended the formal dedication Sunday of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall. It was an emotional day for those, including President Obama, who came to honor the slain civil rights leader. Obama said King's work "is not complete." -
Emerging from the shadow of the Washington Monument, civil rights groups marched to the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on Saturday. The crowd rallied on the eve of the new memorial's dedication, calling for jobs and economic justice. -
Longtime Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, whose maverick style had a huge impact on professional football, has died. The 82-year-old saw his team win three Super Bowls. His independent streak was both admired and excoriated, but stubbornness in his later years was blamed for the team's struggles. NPR's Allison Keyes has this remembrance.
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NPR's summer road trip series, "Honey Stop the Car!" pulls over in Richmond, Va., where a statue of tennis great Arthur Ashe stands in an unlikely place. It's among statues of major figures from the Confederacy.
