A new exhibit is ongoing in New York City today displaying the memorabilia of one of music's most enduring icons. John Lennon: The New York City Years opened this week at the Rock & Roll Annex NYC on Monday and it is featuring some rare items from the former Beatles great. Items taken for the exhibit came from the Rock & Roll Museum in Cleveland and the John Lennon Museum in Tokyo. Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, also provided a few items of him that she kept over the years.
The most interesting item that will be present will be the bloodstained clothes still in a paper bag that John Lennon wore the balmy night of December 8, 1980 when he was fatally shot in front of his apartment building in New York City by crazed fan Mark David Chapman. Yoko Ono, who watched the murder take place, admitted that it was a tough decision to add those clothes to this exhibit.
"The decision to include [that item] was pretty hard," Ono said. "I thought I might be criticized for it, but it's very important now for people to understand what violence is about."
Plenty of other items will be on display, including guitars, lyric books, and some of the letters regarding John Lennon's deportation case. Former US President Richard Nixon attempted to have Lennon deported from the United States due to his influence in the anti-war movement that wound up defining him as an anti-war hero and political activist. The deportation proceedings lasted for about four years until Lennon was finally given a green card to stay in what would become his adopted home until his death: New York City.
Yoko Ono and curator Jim Henke made sure that this exhibit would be held in New York City, a place that John Lennon fell in love with.
"I know it's a kind of a sad and very poignant kind of paradox, I think, that he loved this place so much and this (is) where he was killed," Ono said. She also said that John Lennon truly felt free in New York City. "New York meant freedom to (Lennon) in some ways. I think he realized even London had elements of conservatism, but here he felt freer. That's why when he came here, it was, 'Whoopee! I'm in New York.' "
The exhibit will be open Sundays through Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. There is no end date of as of yet for the exhibit, but sources say that the exhibit will at least be open for the remainder of the year. If you're ever in New York City, this should absolutely be an exhibit you should go see.
Do you think it was a good idea to have the bloodstained clothes he wore when he was murdered at the exhibit? Let us know your thoughts on this exhibit.
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