Across shape-shifting performances, Becca Kauffman uses her alter-ego to explore the limits of self-confidence.
Entering the closet-size kosher diner B&H Dairy off of Saint Marks Place on a sweltering August afternoon, Becca Kauffman—otherwise known by her stage name Jennifer Vanilla—is easy to spot. Wearing a white T-shirt that says, “I’d Rather Be Jennifering,” her hair is cropped into a short bowl cut and dyed bleach blonde.
Originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Ridgewood, Queens, Kauffman has spent her life deeply entrenched in the performing arts. As a child, she took dance classes, already picturing herself as an experimental artist living in the East Village. When she first graduated from college and relocated to New York a decade ago, Kauffman sang jazz standards at bars and participated in what she refers to as a “radical marching band.
The change came during her second U.S. tour this past February. Kauffman notes that things began as usual: She arrived in Athens, Georgia, to headline a music festival that highlights solo artists. Then, like any artist touring the country alone, she befriended a group of students—they all had mullets, so she got one herself, marking the beginning of what Kauffman refers to as a “transformative hair journey.” As she moved across the country, her hair changed continuously.
Several haircuts and six months later, Kauffman has thought a lot about how she wants to evolve her act and her aesthetic. For starters, she’s moving away from pure performance art, and lately has opted to DJ during her sets. “The risk that I’m taking right now is learning how to DJ, and working that into my live set. [Jennifer sets are] becoming a little less performative, [and I’m] changing up [my audience’s] impression of who Jennifer is.
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