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About Jenny

Jenny was born ("springing [as Athena did] full grown from the head of Zeus", as you might say) during Lois' time in graduate school. Various circumstances made it both soothing and useful to adopt "Jenny" as a name for her private, non-classical, off-duty, free-spirit, less responsible self. We all have different sides to ourselves, we all play a variety of roles - although we may not give them names! We are each both child and adult, often sibling, spouse and parent; a lot of us do a particular job and are known by it ("I'm a teacher"); most of us, I hope, are friends and colleagues, cousins and aunts, neighbors, volunteers etc. Sometimes it can be helpful - even liberating - to give a name to some particular (perhaps neglected, perhaps overburdened) role or 'self'.

At least I've found it so. Over time I began singing as Jenny Rivers. I had always liked "Jenny" as a name; "Rivers" I borrowed from Jessamyn West's novel Leafy Rivers. (I'd like to have borrowed "Leafy" too, but didn't quite have the nerve!) When Lois started teaching classics at Princeton and Jenny began singing in a local pub, it seemed more tactful to let Jenny do the singing and Lois the teaching. But I soon discovered that they helped each other: Lois' experience in handling a class occasionally gave Jenny ideas about how to work with an audience; Jenny's warmth and outreach spilled over into the classroom to let Lois become an unusually caring teacher offering "beyond the call of duty" attention to her students. Finally Lois began occasionally to "invite a guest speaker" into her lectures: after being introduced (and standing, of course, on the other side of the desk!) Jenny would sing and play English ballads which illustrated the materials Homer was working with, or teach Latin and Greek rounds to Lois' language classes, or end Lois' mythology class with "The Hero's Journey Song" (tune borrowed respectfully from Phil Ochs). At the same time, it became very clear that Jenny NEVER filled out forms or wrote recommendations!

Over time, actually, other names have developed as circumstances required different skills or focuses, but you'll have to wait for Turning Signals to find out more. By naming my free spirit off-duty self, I've been able to incorporate her into my always-life to my greater comfort and (I hope) to the benefit of my small corner of the world. But - I've never forgotten one student's anxious question to her section leader, after "Jenny" had visited class: "Does she really think she's two people?" 

Relax! Of course I don't!

And, yes! Of course! I am five or six different people! And so are you! Do you have only one outfit of clothing which you wear at work, at play, to clean house, to go out for an evening and to sleep? Have you ever had a nickname that some people - but not everyone - uses? "Join the club" of many-sided humanity!

 

from the 60's from the 80's from the '00s

 

Latest Release

Sportscar Lady with a Stationwagon Life is the debut solo album, by long-time singer/songwriter and Classics teacher, Jenny Hinckley. Named after the title cut, it offers mellow vocals, rich guitar, tunes that linger and unexpected lyrics - funny, beautiful, touching and (or) thought-provoking - for mostly universal moments in life.

Get the CD

Contact Jenny

Jenny's Song Service doesn't exist yet, but if/when it does - say, early in 2006 - you could request a song for your group's celebration or your sister's birthday... you'd fill out a questionnaire about the group or the person in question; you'd opt for a public domain tune or an original one; and.... you'd get a song for the occasion!

To contact Jenny please use this address: jenny@hinckley.com