Joanne Hyppolite grew up hearing very little about Black history.
She was born in Haiti but raised in Boston, and she went to an Irish Catholic school where they spent a lot of time talking about American history. But not much about Black people’s role in it.
Joanne wanted to tell the stories she rarely heard. She made a career out of helping tell the important ways in which Black people influenced all aspects of American culture.
Now she helps others learn that history. She’s a curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. She focuses on the achievements of the African diaspora — and how it shaped America.
South Florida played an important role for her. She got her Ph.D. at the University of Miami. Then she spent eight years as HistoryMiami’s chief curator before taking her talents to D.C.
On the Feb. 27 episode of Sundial, Hyppolite joined Sundial to talk about her national role with the Smithsonian and why she still calls Miami home.
On Sundial's previous episode, we spoke with Cindy and Jeremy Bearman. They stopped working for big-name chefs in New York to open their own restaurant: Oceano Kitchen in Lantana, which has earned them a nomination for a James Beard Award.
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