
Cheryl Corley
Cheryl Corley is a Chicago-based NPR correspondent who works for the National Desk. She primarily covers criminal justice issues as well as breaking news in the Midwest and across the country.
In her role as a criminal justice correspondent, Corley works as part of a collaborative team and has a particular interest on issues and reform efforts that affect women, girls, and juveniles. She's reported on programs that help incarcerated mothers raise babies in prison, on pre-apprenticeships in prison designed to help cut recidivism of women, on the efforts by Illinois officials to rethink the state's juvenile justice system and on the push to revamp the use of solitary confinement in North Dakota prisons.
For more than two decades with NPR, Corley has covered some of the country's most important news stories. She's reported on the political turmoil in Virginia over the governor's office and a blackface photo, the infamous Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida, on mass shootings in Orlando, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago; and other locations. She's also reported on the election of Chicago's first black female and lesbian mayor, on the campaign and re-election of President Barack Obama, on the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and oil spills along the Gulf Coast, as well as numerous other disasters, and on the funeral of the "queen of soul," Aretha Franklin.
Corley also has served as a fill-in host for NPR shows, including Weekend All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and defunct shows Tell Me More and News and Notes.
Prior to joining NPR, Corley was the news director at Chicago's public radio station, WBEZ, where she supervised an award-winning team of reporters. She also worked as the City Hall reporter covering the administration of the city's first black mayor, Harold Washington, and others that followed. She also has been a frequent panelist on television news-affairs programs in Chicago.
Corley has received awards for her work from a number of organizations including the National Association of Black Journalists, the Associated Press, the Public Radio News Directors Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists. She earned the Community Media Workshop's Studs Terkel Award for excellence in reporting on Chicago's diverse communities and a Herman Kogan Award for reporting on immigration issues.
A Chicago native, Corley graduated cum laude from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and is a former Bradley University trustee. While in Peoria, Corley worked as a reporter and news director for public radio station WCBU and as a television director for the NBC affiliate, WEEK-TV. She is a past President of the Association for Women Journalists in Chicago (AWJ-Chicago).
She is also the co-creator of the Cindy Bandle Young Critics Program. The critics/journalism training program for female high school students was originally collaboration between AWJ-Chicago and the Goodman Theatre. Corley has also served as a board member and president of Community Television Network, an organization that trains Chicago youth in video and multimedia production.
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While the Nazis may have used the children's opera Brundibár as a propaganda tool, it also was a symbol of hope for the children who performed it. It is now a way to remember profound loss.
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It's not only GOP voters who have a stake in Tuesday's Illinois primary. This year Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. faces a primary challenge from former Rep. Debbie Halvorson. Will an ethics investigation and Halvorson's own record be enough to unseat Jackson, who has served his district since 1995?
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The University of North Dakota's Native American nickname and logo has been controversial for decades. The dispute has reached a new level as supporters and opponents fight over the validity of a state law that requires the university to keep the name.
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Her name is synonymous with Chicago blues, and her voice was growling, thunderous and full of soul. Grammy Award-winning blues singer Koko Taylor died in a Chicago hospital Wednesday.
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Tourists and townsfolk alike are dancing to the beats of the Jazz Festival in New Orleans. It's the first major music festival in the city since Hurricane Katrina struck last year. So far, ticket sales have been brisk.
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A fire has destroyed the landmark Pilgrim Baptist Church on Chicago's South Side. Built in 1890, the church became a catalyst for the popularity of gospel music in the 1930s under choir director Thomas Dorsey.
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Later this year, vibraphonist Gary Burton will resign as vice president of Berklee College of Music, ending a three-decade affiliation with the school. NPR's Cheryl Corley talks with Burton about the move and his desire to do more performing and recording.
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Singer Mari Anne Jayme and trumpeters Marlon Winder and Matt White are among a group of promising young musicians invited to Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Started by the late jazz singer in 1993, the annual event offers workshops and coaching for emerging artists. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.