Yoko Ono Still an Inspiration at Age 80

Yoko Ono will re-issue her album catalog this year
By A.D. AMOROSI

This week, Yoko Ono celebrated her eightieth birthday, but there’s no slowing down for this avant-garde artist we first got to know during the Fluxus movement in the early 1960s. Instead, the Japanese primal scream-singer and poet seems as ceaseless as she is restless and forward thinking. “I work fast,” Ono told me during a 2009 interview for Blurt Magazine. “I let myself happen.”

So far this year, Ono - wife of the late John Lennon - has let herself happen on a new dance single, "Hold Me," with DJ Dave Aude as well as playing shows in Europe with the Plastic Ono Band and planning to record a new album with the ensemble. She will also re-issue her lengthy catalog of previously recorded albums, twenty one at last count.

“People are still picking them up," said Ono in regard to her past recordings during our interview. "Each one was powerful in its own way. “

There are several books dedicated to Ono and her work out presently. Yoko Ono: An Invisible Flower compiles many of her drawings and one-line poems, while Yoko Ono: Collector of Skies is her most recent biography written by Nell Beram and Carolyn Boriss-Krimsky.

More importantly though, is her pursuance of all things peaceful and green, "She's high octane and when she decides on something, she moves decisively,” said her son Sean Lennon during that same interview.

Traveling the world in the name of peace still seems to be Ono's primary goal. In 2012, she attended anti-fracking rallies in Pennsylvania and spent time on Atlantic City’s coastline, fighting for the rights of those struck by Hurricane Sandy.

It’s easy to see why Yoko Ono is still an inspiration for artists and humanitarians alike.

Happy birthday Ms. Ono.

Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2013