Gwen Thompkins
Gwen Thompkins hosts Music Inside Out on WWNO in New Orleans.
Up until recently, she was an NPR foreign correspondent covering East Africa. She was based in Nairobi, Kenya, reporting on the countries, people and happenings from the Horn to the heart of Africa.
Since arriving in Africa in 2006, Thompkins has reported on the toppling of the Islamic Courts Union government in Somalia, ethnic violence in Kenya, insecurity in Darfur and Sudan's first nationwide elections in a generation. She has also written a series on the Nile River, traveling from the shores of Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea. Heading south, she has reported stories from South Africa and Antarctica.
From 1996 to 2006, Thompkins was senior editor of Weekend Edition Saturday. Working with Scott Simon she learned — among other things — that when a horse walks into a bar, the bartender has to say, "So, why the long face?"
While at Weekend Edition, Thompkins also reported from her hometown of New Orleans. In the months following Hurricane Katrina, she and senior producer Sarah Beyer Kelly filed stories on the aftermath of the storm and the rebuilding efforts.
Before coming to NPR, Thompkins worked as a reporter and editor at The Times-Picayune newspaper.
A graduate of Newcomb College at Tulane University, Thompkins majored in history and Soviet studies. While on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, she was in Eastern Europe when the Berlin Wall fell. Fortunately, she says, she was not injured.
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Sutton, who appeared in more than 100 movies, plays and television shows over a career that spanned almost 50 years, died this past week of complications from the coronavirus.
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The Latin American Library at Tulane University is digitizing a whopping collection of Cold War-era, must-hear entertainment — Spanish language radionovelas made by Cuban emigrés in Miami. -
Regine Chassagne of Arcade Fire pays tribute to her Haitian roots with a new Krewe du Kanaval at carnival this year. The effort is a collaboration with Preservation Hall Foundation.
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The rhythm-and-blues legend who became one of the progenitors of rock 'n' roll — and reportedly sold more than 65 million records along the way — died Tuesday. -
Ten years after hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, former NPR correspondent Gwen Thompkins reports on the struggles of her beloved hometown, New Orleans, to rebuild lives.
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An upcoming documentary highlights the life of the man many called New Orleans' best pianist in a hundred years. -
Egyptians say that two colonial-era agreements forever guarantee them most of the Nile's flow. But other countries in the Nile River basin want more access to the water. -
Egypt uses more Nile River water than any other country, citing colonial-era agreements as proof of entitlement. But upstream, Ethiopia has begun asserting its rights and has visions of harnessing the river to produce more electricity and irrigation.
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A Congolese military spokesman says the Rwandan army has arrested Congo rebel leader Laurent Nkunda. The spokesman says Nkunda resisted being taken into custody by a joint Rwandan-Congolese force before he was arrested.
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Around the globe, people marked Barack Obama's election victory with raucous celebrations. Western Kenya, the ancestral homeland of the Obama family, was no exception. Obama's father was from Kogelo, Kenya, and villagers there are planning a huge feast to celebrate.
