Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Tracy Chapman began playing guitar and writing songs as a child. She was accepted into A Better Chance, the national resource for identifying, recruiting and developing leaders among academically gifted students of color, which enabled her to attend Wooster School in Connecticut, and was eventually accepted to Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
In May 2004, her alma mater, Tufts University honored her with an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, for her contributions as a socially conscious and artistically accomplished musician.
Tracy often performs at and attends AIDS charities, amfAR and AIDS/LifeCycle, to name a few.
Chapman generally doesn't discuss her personal life. In an interview in The Guardian in December 2006 Alice Walker spoke about her relationship with Chapman in the mid-1990s, saying, "Yeah I loved it too. Absolutely."
