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Artists Against Hunger &
Poverty
national artist
Click here to see Jen Chapin's touring dates
and the groups she's supporting
Jen Chapin
Jen Chapin is a New York-based singer-songwriter on the rise. Her 2004 Hybrid
Recordings release, Linger, has earned the highest praise from sources as diverse as
National Public Radio's All Things Considered, People, The Today Show, and Entertainment
Weekly. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel lauded Linger as being "smart, observant,
lyrically deft, politically aware and emotionally intuitive" while The Boston Globe
called it simply: "addictive." Through this subtle yet powerful album, Chapin reaches
out to her listeners with an honesty and directness seldom heard in even the best pop
songwriting, while from the stage she captivates her audiences with her "sweetly supple
singing" (Entertainment Weekly) and the sophisticated support of her dynamic, intelligent
band. A Jen Chapin performance is "an intensely emotional, sensual experience, almost
embarrassing in its naked intimacy and vulnerability, in its invitation to listeners
to think and to love along with her. She is a remarkable presence on stage..." (Berkshire
Eagle) 
Jen Chapin was born to an extended family of artists and academics, and raised along
with her four siblings in Long Island, New York. She entered Brown University, studied
abroad in Mexico and Zimbabwe and earned a degree in International Relations. But then,
as Jen recounts, "I had the belated realization that I would go crazy if I weren't
seriously involved with music somehow. So I turned down a spot in a graduate teaching
program to become a freshman again at Berklee College of Music. I thought I would end up
singing in a bar band as a sideline to teaching high school or working for a non-profit
organization, but I just kept getting sucked in deeper to the music!"
Since relocating to New York in 1995, Jen has delved headlong into the city's vibrant
and varied music scene, performing at venues such as Joe's Pub, The Bottom Line, Town
Hall, Fez Under Time Cafe, Mercury Lounge, and the nerve center of the new
singer-songwriter scene, The Living Room. Her songs have been honored with numerous
songwriting prizes, as well as being featured in Matthew Coppola's feature film Fresh
Cut Grass, which recently won honors at the Hamptons and Texas Film Festivals and is
now broadcasting on Showtime Networks. Jen has also been sought after as a featured
vocalist for groups like the vibrant Kurt-Weill-meets-Hank-Williams outfit
"The Weimarband," and Joel Harrison's innovative "Free Country," which features
traditional spiritual, country, and Appalachian tunes in a creative jazz setting.
All the while, Jen has worked hard to interweave her musical and political
passions. She chairs the Board of Directors of WHY (World Hunger Year) -- an activist
organization co-founded by her father, the late singer-songwriter Harry Chapin -- and
helps to support WHY's innovative grassroots efforts to fight hunger and poverty by
building self-reliance. She is especially committed to WHY's "Artists Against Hunger
and Poverty" program which works to network performing artists with community-based
anti-poverty groups. Drawing on her experiences as a middle and high school teacher,
Jen has also developed a number of workshops/lectures, including "Music and Social
Action," "The Hows and WHYs of Hunger" and "Black Music in America." She has presented
these workshops to high school and college students and other audiences.
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