Drawing inspiration from the iconic peace anthem 'Happy Xmas! War Is Over!' by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, filmmakers Dave Mullins and Brad Booker from ElectroLeague, along with co-writer and producer Sean Ono Lennon, secured their first Academy Award on Sunday. [... ] Sometimes the best stories can be told with the help of a chessboard. The game is a key element in "War Is Over", and the 11-minute indie flick revolves around two soldiers, from opposite camps. In the short, the cerebral clash of chess is used as a metaphor for humanizing the soldiers and as a way of communication. [...] Ono, now 91 years old, has long been known as a chess enthusiast, playing chess with her late husband in the music video for 'Don't Count The Waves' from 1972. She also designed “Play It By Trust”, a chess set where all the pieces are white resulting in the players having to collaborate in order to remember where they placed the pieces, showing off her clear anti-war stance. "Chess is a universal language," her son Sean remarked in an interview.

If you were to ask a random selection of people, “What’s the first thing that springs to mind when you think of Yoko Ono?” ‘She was married to John Lennon’ would probably be a common reply. If you then asked them what they know about her music, you’d either get blank looks or references to her screaming into a microphone. In the latest episode of the Misadventures in Music podcast, hosts Ian Prowse and Mick Ord take on the challenge of reshaping these perceptions by diving deep into the life and music of Yoko Ono. They are joined by Madeline Bocaro, a renowned biographer who has been closely following Ono’s career since the sixties. [...] Bocaro provides a nuanced portrait of Ono, highlighting her innovative spirit and the profound influence she has had on contemporary music and art. They discuss her avant-garde compositions, her pioneering work in the Fluxus movement, and her influence on the conceptual art scene.

Japan Institute and Portland Japanese Garden will be partnering with the Nobel Peace Center, Yoko Ono’s studio and public gardens around the world to feature a global Wish Tree installation. The Wish Tree is an interactive artwork created by acclaimed artist and global peace advocate Yoko Ono. […] From June 7-10, the Wish Tree will be installed in the Tateuchi Courtyard, where visitors will be invited to reflect and write their wishes for peace that will then be tied to the Wish Tree’s branches. After its presence here concludes, the wishes are preserved and continue on in connection with the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER in Reykjavík, Iceland, to join the chorus of global citizens calling for peace.

The question of Yoko Ono’s marriage to John Lennon sits like a water buffalo at the center of any conversation about her eight decades of work as an artist. It is oversized, hairy, imposing, impossible to ignore, tricky to get around. Do you tiptoe past it, slink away from it, or approach it head-on? [...] Coming from opposite directions, John Lennon and Yoko Ono met at the same place, as her work suggests a high artist searching for ways of liberating the avant-garde from arid intellectualism and going for the gut, the heart. Throughout the exhibition “Yoko Ono: Music for the Mind,” (at Tate Modern, until 1st September) pleasure comes into the equation, with works conceived to make you smile, giggle, or, perhaps oddest of all in the context of the art world, just feel warm. (Cut Piece is a notable exception.) With Ono, there’s always an impulse to embrace the unseriousness of the serious. In this way she’s not unlike the very best pop musicians. She was, after all, married to one, and perhaps it was he who said it best: “Her work is far out.”