Karen Grigsby Bates
Karen Grigsby Bates is the Senior Correspondent for Code Switch, a podcast that reports on race and ethnicity. A veteran NPR reporter, Bates covered race for the network for several years before becoming a founding member of the Code Switch team. She is especially interested in stories about the hidden history of race in America—and in the intersection of race and culture. She oversees much of Code Switch's coverage of books by and about people of color, as well as issues of race in the publishing industry. Bates is the co-author of a best-selling etiquette book (Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times) and two mystery novels; she is also a contributor to several anthologies of essays. She lives in Los Angeles and reports from NPR West.
-
Susan Straight is a collector of stories with a uniquely Californian view of the world. That viewpoint animates her latest novel, the saga of a mixed-race slave girl in the American South, which explores the human drive to escape captivity and find a measure of personal liberty.
-
A new documentary takes a loving look at the Silver Belles, a leggy troupe of dancers who drew crowds to famous nightclubs and theatres during the height of the Harlem Renaissance. Decades later, the women are still dancing, and still drawing the crowds.
-
The National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights group, holds its annual convention in Los Angeles this weekend. Representatives from thousands of organizations will discuss Latino clout at the voting booth, coalition politics and the growing Hispanic middle class.
-
Statistics show that black children are more than twice as likely to drown than their white peers. But at the John Argue Swim Stadium in Los Angeles -- built for the 1984 Summer Olympics -- an effort is under way to teach all children how to swim. -
This week marks the unofficial start of summer -- and it wouldn't be summer without a big list of books to help pass the time. Karen Grigsby Bates offers a wide-ranging selection, from biography to barbecue. -
The U.S. Marines implicated in the deaths of two dozen Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha were all based at Camp Pendleton in Southern California. In the city of Oceanside, just outside the gates of the sprawling military base, locals have mixed feelings about the allegations.
-
San Francisco's Fillmore District is known for its namesake rock venue, but once it was home to legendary jazz clubs. A new photo book preserves the record of a neighborhood that fell victim to "urban renewal."
-
The Nat King Cole Show debuted in 1956, making singer and jazz pianist Nat "King" Cole the first black man to host a nationally televised variety program. Cole reluctantly challenged segregation on television and in American society, but a year later the show ended.
-
Central Grocery, one of New Orleans' best-loved specialty foods stores, had to close for a few months after Hurricane Katrina hit. But one of its owners forged ahead to re-open in time for Mardi Gras and the Central Grocery's 100th birthday.
-
The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club is the oldest mostly-black krewe in New Orleans' Mardi Gras parade. They're at the head of the procession this year amid recovery from Hurricane Katrina. The decision to parade, say some members, was a difficult choice.
