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Joni Mitchell blackface controversy
Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has been the subject of controversy for her use of blackface since the mid-1970s.
As early as 1974, Mitchell described an apparently imaginary "male muse named Art" in an interview with Time Magazine, who noted that she "deeply (believed)" in him. Mitchell was quoted as saying: "I feel like I'm married to this guy named Art. I'm responsible to my Art above all else." At this stage, she did not reference Art as being any particular race or having a physical form.
In 1975, Mitchell was first inspired to experiment with blackface during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour, in which she spoke to Hurricane Carter on the phone and perceived him as "a bad person... a violent person and an opportunist." When asked to introduce Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden by Joan Baez, Mitchell jokingly suggested referring to both Ali and Carter as "jive-ass niggers" and considered going out in blackface. Later, her dentist told her she had "teeth like a Negro male."
After seeing a black man in the street, she then went to a 1976 Halloween party in blackface as a character she named first "Claude", then "Art Nouveau":
I was walking down Hollywood Boulevard, in search of a costume for a Halloween party when I saw this black guy with a beautiful spirit walking with a bop... As he went by me he turned around and said, "Ummmm, mmm... looking good sister, lookin' good!" Well I just felt so good after he said that. It was as if this spirit went into me. So I started walking like him. I bought a black wig, I bought sideburns, a moustache. I bought some pancake makeup. It was like 'I'm goin' as him!'
Mitchell later claimed she had successfully passed as a man on that night, and had even been asked if she was at the right party.
Among other visual elements – including Mitchell in a black dress with top hat, a young Mitchell in Native American garb and Mickey Mouse balloons – Mitchell's 1977 album cover for Don Juan's Reckless Daughter featured her as Art Nouveau in blackface with a pimp outfit and afro wig. In the inner sleeve, she appears in blackface again with a speech bubble reading "Mooslems, Mooooslems! Heh, Heh, Heh." This reference to Muslims echoes the line "While Muslims stick up Washington" in the song "Otis and Marlena", which itself refers to the 1977 Washington, D.C., attack and hostage taking that involved the Black Muslim Hanafi Movement.
The photos were taken by Norman Seeff. Outtakes from the shoot were published in 2018 in the hardcover coffee table book Joni: The Joni Mitchell Sessions. Seeff said that her decision "caused a lot of consternation." "It was great revenge", said Mitchell. "That was all to get (Seeff's) ass. To freak him out." She later claimed she was not recognised by several people on the shoot, who came up to her and asked "Can I help you?"
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Joni Mitchell blackface controversy
Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has been the subject of controversy for her use of blackface since the mid-1970s.
As early as 1974, Mitchell described an apparently imaginary "male muse named Art" in an interview with Time Magazine, who noted that she "deeply (believed)" in him. Mitchell was quoted as saying: "I feel like I'm married to this guy named Art. I'm responsible to my Art above all else." At this stage, she did not reference Art as being any particular race or having a physical form.
In 1975, Mitchell was first inspired to experiment with blackface during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour, in which she spoke to Hurricane Carter on the phone and perceived him as "a bad person... a violent person and an opportunist." When asked to introduce Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden by Joan Baez, Mitchell jokingly suggested referring to both Ali and Carter as "jive-ass niggers" and considered going out in blackface. Later, her dentist told her she had "teeth like a Negro male."
After seeing a black man in the street, she then went to a 1976 Halloween party in blackface as a character she named first "Claude", then "Art Nouveau":
I was walking down Hollywood Boulevard, in search of a costume for a Halloween party when I saw this black guy with a beautiful spirit walking with a bop... As he went by me he turned around and said, "Ummmm, mmm... looking good sister, lookin' good!" Well I just felt so good after he said that. It was as if this spirit went into me. So I started walking like him. I bought a black wig, I bought sideburns, a moustache. I bought some pancake makeup. It was like 'I'm goin' as him!'
Mitchell later claimed she had successfully passed as a man on that night, and had even been asked if she was at the right party.
Among other visual elements – including Mitchell in a black dress with top hat, a young Mitchell in Native American garb and Mickey Mouse balloons – Mitchell's 1977 album cover for Don Juan's Reckless Daughter featured her as Art Nouveau in blackface with a pimp outfit and afro wig. In the inner sleeve, she appears in blackface again with a speech bubble reading "Mooslems, Mooooslems! Heh, Heh, Heh." This reference to Muslims echoes the line "While Muslims stick up Washington" in the song "Otis and Marlena", which itself refers to the 1977 Washington, D.C., attack and hostage taking that involved the Black Muslim Hanafi Movement.
The photos were taken by Norman Seeff. Outtakes from the shoot were published in 2018 in the hardcover coffee table book Joni: The Joni Mitchell Sessions. Seeff said that her decision "caused a lot of consternation." "It was great revenge", said Mitchell. "That was all to get (Seeff's) ass. To freak him out." She later claimed she was not recognised by several people on the shoot, who came up to her and asked "Can I help you?"