Karen Grigsby Bates

Karen Grigsby Bates is the Los Angeles-based correspondent for NPR News. Bates contributed commentaries to All Things Considered for about 10 years before she joined NPR in 2002 as the first correspondent and alternate host for The Tavis Smiley Show. In addition to general reporting and substitute hosting, she increased the show's coverage of international issues and its cultural coverage, especially in the field of literature and the arts.

In early 2003, Bates joined NPR's former midday news program Day to Day. She has reported on politics (California's precedent-making gubernatorial recall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign and the high-profile mayoral campaign of Los Angeles' Antonio Villaraigosa), media, and breaking news (the Abu Ghrarib scandal, the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia and the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams).

Bates' passion for food and things culinary has served her well: she's spent time with award-winning food critic Alan Richman and chef-entrepreneur Emeril Lagasse.

One of Bates' proudest contributions is making books and authors a high-profile part of NPR's coverage. "NPR listeners read a lot, and many of them share the same passion for books that I do, so this isn't work, it's a pleasure." She's had conversations with such writers as Walter Mosley, Joan Didion and Kazuo Ishiguru. Her bi-annual book lists (which are archived on the web) are listener favorites.

Before coming to NPR, Bates was a news reporter for People magazine. She was a contributing columnist to the Op Ed pages of the Los Angeles Times for ten years. Her work has appeared in Time, The New York Times, the Washington Post, Essence and Vogue. And she's been a guest on several news shows such as ABC's Nightline and the CBS Evening News.

In her non-NPR life, Bates is the author of Plain Brown Wrapper and Chosen People, mysteries featuring reporter-sleuth Alex Powell. She is co-author, with Karen E. Hudson, of Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times, a best-selling etiquette book now in its second edition. Her work also appears in several writers' anthologies.

Bates holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College. Additionally she studied at the University of Ghana and completed the executive management program at Yale University's School of Organization and Management.

Television

12:19 am

Fri January 11, 2013

'Living' In Color, Long Before 'Girls'

Credit E.J. Camp / Corbis

Living Single (1993-1998) featured four young, black, professional women in New York — including Queen Latifah as the ambitious head of a small magazine.

By Karen Grigsby Bates

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 10:14 am

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The second season of HBO's critically acclaimed series Girls begins Sunday night, but the show about 20-something girls navigating their social and work lives in New York has itself been criticized for not being diverse enough.

By now, most of you have heard the buzz about Girls: It's written by 26-year-old Lena Dunham, and stars a quartet of young women whose plans sometimes crash face-first into life's nasty realities.

The show's smart dialogue attracted writer Allison Samuels, a cultural critic for Newsweek/The Daily Beast.

2:25 pm

Wed December 12, 2012

New Policy For Young Immigrants Creates Paperwork Deluge

Credit Jonathan Alcorn / Reuters/Landov

A crowd seeks help applying for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles in August. Schools have been inundated with requests for the documents needed to qualify.

By Karen Grigsby Bates

Originally published on Wed December 12, 2012 3:29 pm

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In the six months since a new law opened a path to temporary legal status for some young immigrants in the U.S., more than 300,000 people have applied — and have rushed to request qualifying documents from their schools.

The law, Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, offers legal status, renewable every two years, to people ages 30 and younger who were brought to the country as children. Applicants must prove they were in the U.S. for five consecutive years — something most easily achieved through school transcripts.

12:26 am

Tue November 20, 2012

Controversial Casting For A Nina Simone Biopic

Credit John Minihan/Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

Nina Simone (left) and actress Zoe Saldana are seen in this composite image. Saldana has been cast to play the late singer in a film biopic.

By Karen Grigsby Bates

Originally published on Mon November 26, 2012 8:35 am

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The rumors that had been around for a couple of years have finally been confirmed: At long last, there's a film in the works about the turbulent life of Nina Simone, otherwise known as the "High Priestess of Soul."

Simone was famous from the 1950s through the '70s for her music and her civil rights activism. And although she died in 2003, her voice remains popular on TV, movie soundtracks and commercials.

1:54 pm

Wed November 7, 2012

Black Voters Still Enthusiastic About Obama

By Karen Grigsby Bates

Originally published on Wed November 7, 2012 2:50 pm

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What role did race plan in the 2012 election? We talk with pundits and voters to see whether they believe race affected the outcome of the presidential campaign.

Digital Life

1:33 pm

Wed October 31, 2012

A Mohawk Hero In The Not-So-Diverse Gaming World

Next image Previous image

Credit Courtesy of Ubisoft

For the latest installment of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series, set in Colonial America, the hooded main character is part Mohawk. The company brought in a Mohawk consultant and hired a Native actor to play the role.

Credit Courtesy of Muse Management

Actor Noah Watts, who plays Connor, is descended from the Crow and Blackfeet nations, and it took some work for him to speak the Mohawk language convincingly. "It was very difficult, the language is very beautiful," he says.

Credit Courtesy of Ubisoft

An artist's rendering of Connor, the Mohawk protagonist in Assassin's Creed III.

By Karen Grigsby Bates

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 2:49 pm

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The Assassin's Creed video game series has become a megahit for gaming enthusiasts. The story line follows a bloody war between Assassins and the Knights Templar, first during the Crusades and then in Renaissance Italy.

The newly released Assassins Creed III crosses the ocean and a couple of centuries so the action could take place during the Revolutionary War and would be wildly anticipated on its own.

4:05 am

Thu October 25, 2012

A Challenging House Race In California's Heartland

By Karen Grigsby Bates

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Freshman California Rep. Jeff Denham, a self-described Valley farmer and Republican businessman, is in a battle against challenger Jose Hernandez, former NASA astronaut and engineer-businessman in a realigned district in the San Joaquin Valley. It's a tight race, with lots of money being poured into both candidates from their respective parties.

Around the Nation

3:20 pm

Mon October 1, 2012

California Bans 'Gay-To-Straight' Therapy For Minors

By Karen Grigsby Bates

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Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And now to California where Governor Jerry Brown has signed a first-in-the nation law. It bans mental health professionals from trying to change the sexual orientation of those under the age of 18. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates has details.

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