PARTING SHOT
Illustration by BRITT SPENCER
IN 1968, YOKO ONO AND JOHN LENNON SHOCKED BEATLES FANS WITH the release of their experimental album Two Virgins. Fifty years later, the world is finally catching up with Ono. For decades, she was unfairly blamed for the Fab Four’s breakup, and her avant-garde art and songwriting were dismissed by the press. But that blame has been exposed as rock-world misogyny, and her work, both with and without Lennon, has been embraced by a new generation. Her 1973 album Feeling the Space—chronicling feminist struggles—seems radically prescient today. And her surrealist wisdom has made her a Twitter favorite. In September, the 85-year-old Ono re-created the historic “Bed-In for Peace” that she and Lennon staged in 1969—this time with Ringo Starr, among others. And this month, she is releasing Warzone, featuring new recordings of 13 careerspanning songs. The most familiar will be a sparse rendition of the Lennon hit “Imagine.” In fact, Ono co-created it, and 46 years later she received a co-writing credit. Newsweek sent the artist a list of questions, which she answered by email.