Donyale Luna started acting in her native Detroit, where a New York photographer spotted her leaving a TV rehearsal; in 1964, she walked into the offices of Harper's Bazaar--she now claims that she was only 15 at the time--and wound up on the January 1965 cover, thus becoming the first black girl to make it big as a fashion model. Then things tightened up--"For reasons of racial prejudice and the economics of the fashion business," says Richard Avedon--who shot her for one issue of Vogue, soon after that ground-breaking cover--"I was never permitted to photograph her for publication again"--and she ran away to Europe. Life there was beatific: "I could have fresh food, I wouldn't have to be bothered with political situations when I woke up in the morning--I could live and be treated as I felt, without having to worry about the police coming along. I like class, I like taste, I like style and, most of all, I love respect--and there's very little respect in America." But now Donyale has come back to America. "There's a great division coming about on this planet," she says. "There are going to be a lot of people who will die because they just don't know how to live. They don't know what life's about, they don't know how to give, how to love--nor do they want to. And those who are beautiful enough--I don't mean physically but something beyond that--they will have the chance to learn how to fly, to be beautiful, to rise above the level of the normal human--to be superior being first and eventually gods and goddesses. They are very few, because 99 percent don't want to listen; they are too busy. Then again, there are the children-- maybe some of them will be the chosen ones. The others, they will die, through all ways, but they are already dying. I've come back not to help but to show America a different kind of beauty." This is, then, your own vision of what is to come? "No, it is the truth." When did you first become aware of the great division? "When I was three years old. I had many visions.... I had great teachers...their names I cannot mention, but they are all from the East--Tibet, China, India." Do you continue to have visions? "Yes, I do, but they're a bit personal." One more question: Is there hope for America? "Oh, sure--America is the youngest country on this planet." It seems very old. "Yes--that's because it's been going backward. People are getting into their own little groups--and no one is communicating." We're listening to you, Donyale.
