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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Tuesday's election is seen as a key off-year contest, and a test of strength for both parties leading up to the 2014 elections. But it's beginning to look like a rout. Democrat Terry McAuliffe is leading Republican Ken Cuccinelli by as much as 12 points. The race appears to have turned into a referendum on Cuccinelli's conservative views.
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Now that the government shutdown is over, federal workers have been ordered back on the job. In Washington D.C., there's been a visible increase in traffic.
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The federal government shut down Tuesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed and many of the nation's landmarks closed. In the nation's capital, many of the memorials and museums that attract tourists are closed, and a lot of the regions workers find themselves with unexpected — and unpaid — time off.
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On Aug. 28, 1963, Lewis was the youngest speaker to address the estimated quarter-million people gathered in Washington. Now a Georgia congressman, he says: "I'm not prepared to sit down and give up." -
Under a popular park in Washington, D.C. is a 19th century burial ground that was once the largest African American cemetery in the city. Advocates want to protect it and create space for a memorial.
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The titan arum blooms again, this time at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. Eager flower-watchers lined up to experience the plant's distinctive rotting-corpse-like odor.
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Wal-Mart says it will not build three of the six stores planned for Washington, D.C., after the city council passed a bill that would require the retailer to pay a wage nearly 50 percent higher than the city's minimum wage. Those three stores would be located in mostly low-income areas, with high unemployment and few places to shop. A similar situation once played out in Chicago.
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How does a great orator develop his speeches? Before Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his iconic address at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963, he gave speeches in Detroit and Newark, N.J., that tested the ideas and language of "I Have a Dream." -
Republicans and Democrats are looking at this year's race for governor in Virginia as a possible harbinger of the 2014 election. The contest pits Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli against Democratic Party fundraiser Terry McAuliffe. Both candidates are strongly supported by their respective bases, but sport strong negatives among moderate voters. The outcome could come down to turnout.
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The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is being built on the National Mall, near the Washington Monument. It is set to open in late 2015.
