SO4 Episode 08: Tracy Hyter-Suffern - Quite a Handful

“I’m either the world’s greatest storyteller or the world’s greatest secret keeper.”

At 60, Tracy Hyter-Suffern, can proudly say,  “I am coming into my own. I’m the woman my mother kept trying to raise.” That woman is a glorious storyteller, joyful and wise, a salsa dancer, and a fierce and fearless cultural and social justice activist. She is the Executive Director of the National Jazz Museum of Harlem, the first Director of the Y.W.C.A. International Relations Department, and over the years ran and fundraised for many groups, from Urban Bush Women to Black Agency Executives. Tracy grew up --and still lives-- in “small town” Staten Island, “a Black girl from the projects” who in her 20s unearthed the family secret: her father’s family was not Black but Native American! It’s a great story that ends with Tracy successfully enrolling the family in the Ramapough Lunaape Nation. Listen now as Tracy shares this and other stories, along with her “Nine Reasons We Are Here.”