Kat Chow
Kat Chow is a reporter with NPR and a founding member of the Code Switch team. She is currently on sabbatical, working on her first book (forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing/Hachette). It's a memoir that digs into the questions about grief, race and identity that her mother's sudden death triggered when Kat was young.
For NPR, she's reported on what defines Native American identity, gentrification in New York City's Chinatown, and the aftermath of a violent hate crime. Her cultural criticism has led her on explorations of racial representation in TV, film, and theater; the post-election crisis that diversity trainers face; race and beauty standards; and gaslighting. She's an occasional fourth chair on Pop Culture Happy Hour, as well as a guest host on Slate's podcast The Waves. Her work has garnered her a national award from the Asian American Journalists Association, and she was an inaugural recipient of the Yi Dae Up fellowship at the Jack Jones Literary Arts Retreat. She has led master classes and spoken about her reporting in Amsterdam, Minneapolis, Valparaiso, Louisville, Boston and Seattle.
She's drawn to stories about race, gender and generational differences
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Not surprisingly, many of the stories we heard from you were about food. You had issues roasting the turkey. Your mom found, um, a creative solution to making your bird golden-brown. -
The procedure to give people with single eyelids a crease above their lashes often provokes controversy. NPR's Kat Chow steps past the debate over whether people should do it to get at the why.
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Half of people of Asian descent have double eyelids — folds above the lash line — and the other half don't. There's a controversial surgery some people get to give themselves that crease. -
In her new memoir for young adults, Woodson uses free verse to tell the story of growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. Her work for young readers often touches on themes of race and identity. -
The nine-note tune made famous in Carl Douglas' 1974 song has served as a stereotype of Asian music since the 19th century.
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Although Latinos are 17 percent of the population, they represent almost a third of frequent moviegoers. People of color overall attend movies at rates higher than their percentage of the population. -
Fred Ho has combined improvisation with Asian themes to create his own form of political activism. Now, at age 56, Ho is dying of cancer. -
How should you tell your friends that you're in friend-love with them? Sakugawa, the artist and author of I Think I Am In Friend-Love With You shares what inspires her work. -
What books that touch on topics of race would you recommend to a not-so-bookish teen? A reader asks us to share our suggestions. -
The author of Forgotten Country went from crunching numbers to writing, though she says words were always her first love. Her novel explores the tenuous lines between freedom and selfishness.
