Known for being a very private person, Yoko Ono rarely speaks publicly about her husband John Lennon. But she is willing to tell the story of their life together through his art.
Ono is bringing dozens of Lennon’s works to Georgetown this weekend, the first time they’ve appeared locally in the 17-year history of the exhibit. So why here and why now?
“I really like the past atmosphere there,” Ono told us about her decision to pick Georgetown. “It feels very liberal and free. Not sure if that’s true but it has that feeling.” (Perhaps she hasn’t been here since the ’60s?)
We also think President Barack Obama, or perhaps more accurately, Michelle, played a role in her choice.
“I think she is marvelous, oh just fantastic,” Ono told us. “She is a very intelligent woman. I shouldn’t say woman, but being,” she added.
She thinks the president is “doing great” and that everyone needs to stop making a big deal out of his first 100 days. “I don’t think he was counting,” she posits.
And apparently she thinks if her husband were still alive, he’d have a lot in common with the president, or at least his use of the Internet.
“John would be connecting online all across the world. I think he would be an online threat to all warmongers,” Ono said.
She told us she would love to meet with the president one of these days to discuss her efforts to “imagine peace” across the world, but admits she knows he is a busy man.
Until then, she hopes he and Michelle will plant the acorn seed — a symbolic gesture of peace she is sending to all heads of state, much like she and John did during their life together — in her new garden on the South Lawn.
“I think it would be nice. … They will be planting a seed of peace.”
