Another Light on the Hill Black Students at Tufts

Tracy Chapman

Tracy Chapman J86 had already made a foray into song-writing before she enrolled at Tufts. While a student at Wooster School in Connecticut, she taught herself how to play guitar and got experience performing during chapel services and student coffeehouses. Chapman began performing early in her career at Tufts, although not just in music. As a freshman, Chapman played on the Tufts women's soccer team.

However, even in her first semester at Tufts, Chapman shone as a performer. During her freshman year, she won the Tufts Annual Student/Faculty Talent Show. She continued to perform, both on campus and in the greater Boston area, becoming a fixture at Harvard Square and the local folk scene. By the end of her freshman year, Chapman had been offered a record contract with a small studio but turned it down to stay at Tufts and pursue her studies in anthropology; she described herself as taking every ethnomusicology class Tufts offered.

Tracy Chapman performs at a student coffeehouse, 1982

Through a classmate's father, a music executive, Chapman's early music spread to a professional audience. One year after graduating with a major in anthropology, Chapman signed a record deal with Elektra Records. The next year, in 1988, she released her first album, the eponymous Tracy Chapman. Featuring hit song “Fast Car,” Tracy Chapman received a four-star review from Rolling Stone, topped the British and American charts, and earned Chapman the 1989 Best New Artist Grammy and a nomination for Album of the Year and Song of the Year. In 1997, Chapman won a fourth Grammy, Record of the Year, for her album New Beginning.

Chapman used her fame for multiple political causes. In 1988, she played at a tribute concert for Nelson Mandela while he was still imprisoned for his anti-Apartheid activism. That same year, she played a pro-human rights themed tour for Amnesty International, and in 1998, she performed at the Clinton White House to celebrate the Special Olympics. In 2004, Chapman performed at an HIV/AIDS awareness bicycle tour and biked with other activists. She regularly speaks in supports of human rights, HIV and AIDS prevention, LGBT rights, and feminist issues.

Tracy Chapman prepares to receive an honorary degree, 2004

In 2004, Chapman joined Neil Armstrong, Nathan Gancher, Walter Isaacson, Richard Luger, and Walter Massey in receiving honorary degrees from Tufts. Chapman received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.

Biography written and researched by Cat Rosch.