Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono Lennon (February 18, 1933 [age 90]), is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and film making. https://web.archive.org/web/20130912052307/http://my.entertainment.yahoo.com/news/yoko-ono-retrospective-opens-frankfurt-164740038.html Ono was John Lennon's wife. 
==History==
===Early Life/Family===
Ono was born in Tokyo City on February 18, 1933, to mother Isoko Ono (小野 磯子, Ono Isoko) (1911–1999) https://www.myheritage.nl/names/isoko_ono Two weeks before Ono's birth, Eisuke (father) was transferred to San Francisco, California, by his employer, the Yokohama Specie Bank. http://www.jpri.org/publications/occasionalpapers/op18.html The rest of the family followed soon after, with Ono first meeting her father when she was two years old. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/yoko-ono-p19685/charts-awards/billboard-singles Her younger brother Keisuke was born in December 1936.
In 1937, the family was transferred back to Japan, and Ono enrolled at Tokyo's elite Gakushūin (also known as the Peers School), one of the most exclusive schools in Japan. http://www.jpri.org/publications/occasionalpapers/op18.html Ono was enrolled in piano lessons from the age of 4, until the age of 12 or 13. Munroe et al. 2000, p. 231 She attended kabuki performances with her mother.
The family moved to New York City in 1940. The next year, Eisuke was transferred from New York City to Hanoi in French Indochina, and the family returned to Japan. Ono was enrolled in Keimei Gakuen, an exclusive Christian primary school run by the Mitsui family. She remained in Tokyo throughout World War II and the fire-bombing of March 9, 1945, during which she was sheltered with other family members in a special bunker in Tokyo's Azabu district, away from the heavy bombing. Ono later went to the Karuizawa mountain resort with members of her family. http://www.jpri.org/publications/occasionalpapers/op18.html
Starvation was rampant in the destruction that followed the Tokyo bombings; the Ono family was forced to beg for food while pulling their belongings in a wheelbarrow. Ono said it was during this period in her life that she developed her "aggressive" attitude and understanding of "outsider" status. Other stories tell of her mother bringing a large number of goods to the countryside, where they were bartered for food. In one anecdote, her mother traded a German-made sewing machine for 60 kilograms (130 lb) of rice to feed the family. http://www.jpri.org/publications/occasionalpapers/op18.html December 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, JPRI Occasional Paper No. 18, Japan Policy Research Institute, November 2000.
After the war ended in 1945, Ono remained in Japan when her family moved to the United States and settled in Scarsdale, New York, an affluent town 25 miles (40 km) north of midtown Manhattan. By April 1946, Gakushūin was reopened and Ono re-enrolled. The school, located near the Tokyo Imperial Palace, had not been damaged by the war, and Ono found herself a classmate of Prince Akihito, the future emperor of Japan. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/yoko-ono-mn0000521704/biography 
===College Years===
Ono joined her family in New York in September 1952, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2HMN-WZL and enrolled at nearby Sarah Lawrence College. Ono's parents approved of her college choice, but disapproved of her lifestyle and chastised her for befriending people they felt were beneath her. In 1956, Ono left college to elope with Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/january7/yoko-010709.html At Sarah Lawrence, she studied poetry with Alastair Reid, English literature with Kathryn Mansell, and music composition with the Viennese-trained André Singer. Munroe et al. 2000, p. 231 Singer introduced her to the work of Edgar Varèse, John Cage, and Henry Cowell. Ono left college and moved to New York in 1957, supporting herself through secretarial work and lessons in the traditional Japanese arts at the Japan Society. Munroe et al. 2000, p. 232
Ono first met John Cage through his student Ichiyanagi Toshi, in Cage's experimental composition class at the New School for Social Research: Munroe et al. 2000, p. 65 She was introduced to more of Cage's unconventional neo-Dadaism first hand, and via his New York City protégés Allan Kaprow, Brecht, Mac Low, Al Hansen and the poet Dick Higgins. Munroe et al. 2000, p. 233. 
In 1961, some years before meeting John Lennon, Ono had her first major public performance in a concert at the 258-seat Carnegie Recital Hall. The Chambers Street series hosted some of Ono's earliest conceptual artwork, including Painting to Be Stepped On, a scrap of canvas on the floor that became a completed artwork upon the accrual of footprints. With that work, Ono suggested that a work of art no longer needed to be mounted on a wall and inaccessible. She showed this work and other instructional work again at Macunias's AG Gallery in July 1961. Munroe et al. 2000, p. 21 After Ono set a painting on fire at one performance, Cage advised her to treat the paper with flame retardant. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/january7/yoko-010709.html 
After living apart for several years, Ono and Ichiyanagi filed for divorce in 1962. Ono returned home to live with her parents, and, suffering from clinical depression.
===Early Career===
On November 28, 1962, Ono married Anthony Cox, an American jazz musician, film producer, and art promoter who had been instrumental in securing her release from the mental institution. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/january7/yoko-010709.html Ono's second marriage was annulled on March 1, 1963, because she had neglected to finalize her divorce from Ichiyanagi. After finalizing that divorce, Cox and Ono married again on June 6, 1963. She gave birth to their daughter Kyoko Chan Cox two months later, on August 8, 1963. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/yoko-ono-mn0000521704/biography 
The marriage quickly fell apart, but the couple continued working together for the sake of their joint careers. They performed at Tokyo's Sogetsu Hall, with Ono lying atop a piano played by John Cage. Soon, the couple returned to New York with Kyoko. In the early years of the marriage, Ono left most of Kyoko's parenting to Cox while she pursued her art full-time, with Cox also managing her publicity.
Ono had a second engagement at the Carnegie Recital Hall in 1965, in which she debuted Cut Piece. http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/cut-piece/ In September 1966, Ono visited London to meet artist and political activist Gustav Metzger's Destruction in Art Symposium in September 1966. She was the only woman artist chosen to perform her own events and only one of two invited to speak. Munroe et al. 2000, p. 168. 
Ono and Cox divorced on February 2, 1969, and she married John Lennon later that same year. During a 1971 custody battle, Cox disappeared with their eight-year-old daughter. He won custody after successfully claiming that Ono was an unfit mother due to her drug use. https://web.archive.org/web/20131213213142/http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/yoko-ono.html Ono's ex-husband changed Kyoko's name to "Ruth Holman" and subsequently raised the girl in an organization known as the Church of the Living Word. Hockinson, Michael J. (1992). The Ultimate Beatles Quiz Book. Macmillan. Ono and Lennon searched for Kyoko for years, but to no avail. She would finally see Kyoko again in 1998. https://web.archive.org/web/20131213213142/http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/yoko-ono.html
===Relationship With John Lennon===
Ono's first contact with any member of the Beatles occurred when she visited Paul McCartney at his home in London to obtain a Lennon–McCartney song manuscript for a book John Cage was working on, Notations. Miles 2001, p. 246. McCartney declined to give her any of his manuscripts but suggested that Lennon might oblige. Miles 2001, p. 246. Lennon later gave Ono the original handwritten lyrics to "The Word".
Ono and Lennon first met on November 7, 1966, at the Indica Gallery in London, where she was preparing Unfinished Paintings, her conceptual art exhibit about interactive painting and sculpture. They were introduced by gallery owner John Dunbar. Harry 2001, p. 682. 
In a 2002 interview, Ono said, "I was very attracted to him. It was a really strange situation."https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle-2-15039/eternal-flame-1-1373461 Ono started writing to Lennon, sending him her conceptual artworks, and soon the two began corresponding. In September 1967, Lennon sponsored Ono's solo Half-A-Wind Show, at Lisson Gallery in London. https://web.archive.org/web/20140410142417/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/yoko-ono/biography#ixzz2sVEUGotR 
In early 1968, while the Beatles were making their visit to India, Lennon wrote the song "Julia" and included a reference to Ono: "Ocean child calls me", referring to the translation of Yoko's Japanese spelling. ""Brought to Book", 31 July 1971 interview with Alan Smith". Uncut Presents NME Originals Beatles-The Solo Years. 2010. p. 42. In May 1968, while his wife was on holiday in Greece, Lennon invited Ono to visit. They spent the night recording a selection of avant-garde tape loops, https://web.archive.org/web/20140410142417/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/yoko-ono/biography#ixzz2sVEUGotR after which, he said, they "made love at dawn". Two Virgins liner notes, Apple, SAPCOR 2 The recordings made by the two during this session ultimately became their first collaborative album, the musique concrete work Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins.
On September 24 and 25, 1968, Lennon wrote and recorded "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", Spizer, Bruce, The Beatles on Apple Records, 498 Productions, ISBN 0-9662649-4-0, 2003, pp. 107–108 which contains sexual references to Ono. Ono became pregnant, but had a miscarriage on November 21, 1968, a few weeks after Lennon's divorce from Cynthia was granted. Harry 2001, p. 510. On December 12, 1968, Lennon and Ono participated in the BBC documentary about The Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus, along with several other high-profile musicians. Lennon performed his Beatles composition "Yer Blues" towards the end, with an improvised vocal performance by Ono rounding out the set. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil-rock-and-roll-circus-1084884/
===Marriage===
On March 20, 1969, Lennon and Ono were married at the registry office in Gibraltar and spent their honeymoon in Amsterdam, campaigning with a week-long Bed-in for Peace. They planned another Bed-in in the US, but were denied entry to the country. Kruse, Robert J. II, "Geographies of John and Yoko's 1969 Campaign for Peace: An Intersection of Celebrity, Space, Art, and Activism", in Johansson, Ola, Bell, Thomas L., eds., Sound, Society and the Geography of Popular Music, Ashgate, ISBN 978-0-7546-7577-8, 2009, p. 16 They held one instead at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, where they recorded "Give Peace a Chance". Norman, Philip (2008). John Lennon: The Life. Doubleday Canada. p. 608. ISBN 978-0-385-66100-3. Lennon later stated his regrets about feeling "guilty enough to give McCartney credit as co-writer on my first independent single instead of giving it to Yoko, who had actually written it with me." Norman, Philip, John Lennon: The Life, 2008, Doubleday Canada, p. 608, ISBN 978-0-385-66100-3 The couple often combined advocacy with performance art, such as in "bagism", first introduced during a Vienna press conference, where they satirised prejudice and stereotyping by wearing a bag over their entire bodies. Lennon detailed this period in the Beatles' song "The Ballad of John and Yoko". Coleman, Ray, Lennon: The Definitive Biography, 1992, p. 550
===Separation===
After the Beatles disbanded in 1970, Ono and Lennon lived together in London and then moved permanently to Manhattan to escape tabloid racism towards Ono. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/feb/02/john-lennon-radical-left-tariq-ali Their relationship became strained because Lennon was facing deportation due to drug charges that had been filed against him in England, and because of Ono's separation from her daughter. The couple separated in July 1973, with Ono pursuing her career and Lennon living between Los Angeles and New York with personal assistant May Pang; Ono had given her blessing to Lennon and Pang's relationship. https://books.google.com/books?id=kVpXvJn0ZZIC&q=%22may+pang%22&pg=RA2-PA260 
By December 1974, Lennon and Pang considered buying a house together, and he refused to accept Ono's phone calls. The next month, Lennon agreed to meet Ono, who claimed to have found a cure for smoking. After the meeting, Lennon failed to return home or call Pang. When she telephoned the next day, Ono told her Lennon was unavailable, because he was exhausted after a hypnotherapy session. Two days later, Lennon reappeared at a joint dental appointment with Pang; he was stupefied and confused to such an extent that Pang believed he had been brainwashed. He told her his separation from Ono was now over, though Ono would allow him to continue seeing her as his mistress. Harry 2001, p. 700-01. 
Ono and Lennon's son, Sean, was born on October 9, 1975, Lennon's 35th birthday. Following the birth of Sean, both Lennon and Ono took a hiatus from the music industry, with Lennon becoming a stay-at-home dad to care for his infant son. Sean has followed in his parents' footsteps with a career in music; he performs solo work, works with Ono and formed a band, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger. http://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/sean-ono-lennon-and-charlotte-kemp-muhl-release-debut-ghost-saber-tooth-tiger-win-award-worst-b
===Murder of Lennon===
On the evening of December 8, 1980, Lennon and Ono were at the Record Plant Studio and working on Ono's song "Walking on Thin Ice". When they returned to The Dakota (their home in Manhattan), Lennon was shot dead by Mark David Chapman, a Beatles fan who had been stalking Lennon for two months. After John's death, Sam Havadtoy moved in. https://thegentlewoman.co.uk/library/yoko-ono
===Later Life===
In 2002, Ono joined the B-52's in New York for their 25th anniversary concerts; she came out for the encore and performed "Rock Lobster" with the band. https://web.archive.org/web/20120404163346/http://www.apeculture.com/music/b52s.htm In March 2002, she was present with Cherie Blair at the unveiling of a seven-foot statue of Lennon to mark the renaming of Liverpool airport to Liverpool John Lennon Airport. https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle-2-15039/eternal-flame-1-1373461
Ono performed at the opening ceremony for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=CSTB&p_theme=cstb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10FF1139BB6CE7E8&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM Like many of the other performers during the ceremony, she wore white to symbolize the snow of winter. She read a free verse poem calling for world peace http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/02/10/olympics.ceremony/ as an introduction to Peter Gabriel's performance of "Imagine". https://web.archive.org/web/20140427163932/http://imaginepeace.com/archives/7251 
On December 13, 2006, one of Ono's bodyguards was arrested after he was allegedly taped trying to extort $2 million from her. The tapes revealed that he threatened to release private conversations and photographs. https://web.archive.org/web/20110629054714/http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news%2Fentertainment&id=4849256 His bail was revoked, and he pleaded not guilty to two counts of attempted grand larceny. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/nyregion/19cnd-driver.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0
==Artwork==
*Cut Piece (1964)
*Grapefruit book (1964)
*Experimental films (1964-1972)
*Wish Tree (1996-Present)
*Earth Peace (2014)
*Skyladder (2014)
*Arising (2015)
*Skylanding (2016)
*Refugee Boat (2019)
==Discography==
===Solo===
*Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band (1970)
*Fly (1971)
*Approximately Infinite Universe (1973)
*Feeling the Space (1973)
*Season of Glass (1981)
*It's Alright (I See Rainbows) (1982)
*Starpeace (1985)
*Rising (1995)
*A Story (1997)
*Blueprint for a Sunrise (2001)
*Between My Head and the Sky (2009)
*Yokokimthurston (2012)
*Take Me to the Land of Hell (2013)
*Warzone (2018)
===With John Lennon===
*Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (1968)
*Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions (1969)
*Wedding Album (1969)
*Live Peace in Toronto 1969 (1969)
*Some Time in New York City (1972)
*Double Fantasy (1980)
*Heart Play: Unfinished Dialogue (1983)
*Milk and Honey (1984)
==Books and Monographs==
*Grapefruit (1964)
*Summer of 1980 (1983)
*ただの私 (Tada-no Watashi – Just Me!) (1986)
*The John Lennon Family Album (1990)
*Instruction Paintings (1995)
*Grapefruit Juice (1998)
*YES YOKO ONO (2000)
*Odyssey of a Cockroach (2005)
*Imagine Yoko (2005)
*2:46: Aftershocks: Stories From the Japan Earthquake (contributor) (2011)
*郭知茂 Vocal China Forever Love Song
*Acorn (2013)
==Filmography==
===Films===
*Cut Piece (1965)
*Satan's Bed (1965)
*Disappearing Music for Face (1966)
*One (1966)
*Eye Blink (1966)
*No. 4 (1967)
*Wrapping Piece (1967)
*No. 5 (1968)
*Two Virgins (1968)
*Mr. & Mrs. Lennon's Honeymoon (1969)
*Bed Peace (1969)
*Self-Portrait (1969)
*Let It Be (1970)
*Up Yours Legs Forever (1970)
*Fly (1970)
*Freedom (1970)
*Apotheosis (1971)
*Erection (1971)
*The Museum of Modern Art Show (1971)
*Isle of Dogs (2018)
===Television===
*The David Frost Show (1969)
*The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (1969)
*Rape (1969)
*The Dick Cavett Show (1971-1972)
*Free Time (1971)
*Imagine (1972)
*The Mike Douglas Show (1972)
*Flipside (1973)
*Mad About You (1995)
*The Beatles: Get Back (2021)
==References==
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