Comments on: Lost Ones: Donyale Luna

By: sara

sara — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:39:59 +0000

I found this article and information about Donyale very interesting. I ran across it after googling African American First. I agree with other writers, that most of us then and even now have to do what we need to in order to succeed and fulfil our fustrations. She was ahead of her time, and bold and beutiful and smart. Bless the ones who knew and loved her personally. Other models of today should pay homage to a great and troubled (only because of society). If she was free to be her, she would not have been labeled weird, etc…
by the way, I will be 55 next month, and yes I do know the internet very well. Haven’t you heard, the 50’s are the new 30’s and because we were baby boomers, the creaters of the hip generation, we are just as in tune with hip-hop, internet, ipod, black berry and everything you kids know, and we just love to see what’s next with you fabulous generation.

By: Aubrey

Aubrey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:44:51 +0000

I find that it’s very hard to believe anything that “GEE” said in his/her comments, due to the fact that he/she can’t even use the right form of there/their/they’re. Plus, he/she can’t use a/an correctly. Jeez, people, GRAMMAR!

By: Crime in Detroit « Crime In Detroit

Crime in Detroit « Crime In Detroit — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:34:16 +0000

[…] Donyale Luna born Peggy Anne Freeman in Rome […]

By: Karen Miller

Karen Miller — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:20:36 +0000

Donyale was a good friend of mine before she went to NY. I am 64 years old and DO know how to use the internet!We were in the Detroit Civic Center Theater together. She was very sweet and troubled. She loved fanticy, it was a good escape. She seemed to suddenly disappear, when I got a letter from her in NY. She wanted me to quit my job and come there.I was too practical and thought this a bad idea. I have an engraved invitation to her wedding at the home of Miles Davis. After that, I became a military wife and moved around alot. Actually had 2 military husbands, so really moved, lost track, except for occational news articles sent by my Mom.I started having dreams of searching for her when I found out she died. SKIDOO was just on TV, which made me think of looking her up on the internet. It filled in a lot of questions about her. Thank you for keeping her memory alive.

By: Chic Noir

Chic Noir — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:08:39 +0000

LOLROF @ some of these wacky comments coming about over a year later. Bella where do they come from. I a lot of your more popular posts, crazy folks have posted comments a year after the fact.

Empress said:
since Carla is her 1st cousin that would put her around the 50-65 age range being that you were raised with her and all. Now I really don’t know a woman of this age to be posting on a blog or even speaking the way Carla is. Hell I would think you would have arthritis by now

*dead*

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:27:05 +0000

Very well done presentation here, and happy to read about the Detroit connection. There are obviously many more stories about fascinating people like her to be told.

By: Empress

Empress — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:52:51 +0000

I’m quite interested about Carla’s (Donayle’s cousin age). Right now Donyale would be a little over 60 and since Carla is her 1st cousin that would put her around the 50-65 age range being that you were raised with her and all. Now I really don’t know a woman of this age to be posting on a blog or even speaking the way Carla is. Hell I would think you would have arthritis by now. How do you even know about the internet? In any event, I didn’t notice Bella speaking ill of the Legendary Luna. I have about two interviews of Ms Luna and, well, she does contradict herself a lot. But hey so did my idol the incomparable Josephine Baker. But how many times are you going to say you knew Donyale….Hmmmm
What’s understood doesn’t need to be said right?

By: afrobella

afrobella — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:32:02 +0000

I find it absolutely amazing that comments continue to come in for this post that I wrote so long ago. Some commenters have come at me with accusations and anger, but all I did was research Donyale Luna’s life exhaustively. I am sorry if my words don’t gel with your personal experience.

I love reading the perspectives of those of you who seem to have known Donyale Luna in her fleeting and marvelous life. Please feel free to continue sharing your knowledge and experiences — it’s good to learn more than what has been previously reported in the mainstream media.

By: Gee

Gee — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:49:35 +0000

Donyale was sweet and lovely and never wanted to hurt anyone or anything… She really wasn’t a diva she cared about animals and nature.. Thought music and dance and paintings were beautiful much more beautiful than any people she ever encountered… Passionate about acting because she could create more beauty…She was creative and talented and loved the arts more than she did herself…She found it difficult as most artists do to accept the harsh reality of society…Where is the LOVE???? We hear the lyrics , we see the paintings, we love ornamental jewelry, fine fabrics for the way they feel, fresh food because of its taste and textures, romantic stories of true love and intimacy, Hopefully, we Love DIversity because it is cool… from Japanese kimonos to Egyptian Hieroglyphics, to Buddhism, to the variations of dialect, to the architecture of Rome to the green fields of Ireland… She was exposed to multiculturalism and the demographics of the world… to film and what it does…various religious beliefs and mores… She loved to walk barefoot and so do I like most ethnic people.. Because the sand and clay and even concrete feels good under your feet..Shoes can be restrictive when you are a dancer which she was trained in Ballet, Modern and Jazz…With tapered toes and narrow feet with length there were no shoes in the sixties that fit properly.. and culturally from the south it was fun to run through the water and sands and clay barefoot…..Beauty is all around us all the time and we cannot accept it… She loved to write and did beautiful stories for children… It was cool to be a butterfly and have wings and fly… She was a Phoenix!!! And no racist , sarcastic, caucasian writers from noteworthy American magazines or newspapers will ever have my allegiance over her beauty or people of color beauty ever….And black people as a race did not want the Tuskegee Airmen to fly or the black panthers to wear AFROS and refer to themselves as Black.. Or Donyale to be a model because it was considered low class, or Hip hop to do music and videos.. or the slaves did not want the other slaves to run from the master… BUT SOME OF US WILL BE FREE…Even if it kills us…..

By: Gee

Gee — Thu, 29 May 2008 10:16:14 +0000

Yea, the nose and mouth was covered because of fear of racial backlash of white readership and subscribers. Which is a fact!! Afrobella do the research for your bloggers. She left to go to Europe because Richard Avedon and Harpers Bazaar was threatened racially by the segregated subscribers in the South and they were afraid for their lives. She didn’t have a Black agent or a father because he was dead. She continued on her path alone at 20 in 1966 without any people professionally or family to look out for her. And managed to secure the cover and command a salary higher than any other woman of any race in the world internationally or domestically.. WOW VERY NOTEWORTHY !!! Yes she supplied interviews to Judy Stone a investigative reporter of Jewish Russian descent in 1968 dressed in SATIRE like Josephine Baker her role model did in the 1930’s. In a Blonde wig and contacts look at me now America still afraid to take my picture because of racial prejudice. I look beautiful as a white woman…Definitely more beautiful than you Judy and look I even have a white boyfriend… By the way I am spiritually enlightened and believe that all races should have an opportunity to showcase there talent not just whites or blacks…I do not support the oppression and hate that you do.. I am a artist not a model..I am well studied and intelligent to negotiate all this with the makeup I do myself which is Egyptian..
Yea, several years later Beverly Johnson would play the game as the Black race loves to do and trash her for her own opportunity which would not have existed without Luna trailblazing.. Really sad to see that we are the only race that continues to discredit our leaders which is why we are so disrespected.. Our ignorance is unbelieveable? During our Black history of the sixties it was and is a known fact the Media is not on out side. Who is the family member that called her weird to white media.. Family and community of Detroit would have been thrilled to see one of our own on a cover of a White Magazine in 1965 and 1966.. Especially , since Black solidarity did not come about until after this lady had left this country as so many of our artists had prior to her because of racism.. Stokely Carmichael and the NAACP fought during 1968 about the term Negro and colored to establish BLACK.. You know Afrobella the Black Movement and then in the seventies the African American classification. It really doesn’t matter the point is that she got on the covers!!!! So that all the doors could open for ethnic fashionistas and artists… Unfortunately, she lost her life achieving this.There were no black people in this industry at the time that she came domestically or internationally.. So who was she supposed to hang with? She was in Pain and the white industry stole her ideas and took credit for them. They never asked her about her training her passion her interest as an artist …. Just the drama of her race every time.. What a BORE!!! While her less interesting and beautiful white girls received real interviews… I think I want to get high too!!! This woman was talented, smart and beautiful.. She was inspirational to the LEADING ARTISTS of our century Salvador Dali called her a GOD!!! Pat Cleveland called her a GOD!! Warhol took her to Harpers Bazaar!!! Fellini one of the greatest directors of all time heralded her!!!!! I don’t know who you are or how well educated but there is something very wrong with your commentary about such a high achiever in the art world!!!! Folks did drugs during this time period and still do big deal.. She was a visionary and you can still see her influence from makeup to the catwalk today she was AHEAD OF HER TIME!!!!! How about she brought movement to the catwalk prior to her there was none..Check that history!!! Everything was original and groundbreaking,,. Her personal life heartbreaking… But she still paved it for you……