Joni Mitchell blackface controversy

"[2] After seeing a black man in the street, she then went to a 1976 Halloween party in blackface as a character she named "Art Nouveau":

The 1982 film Love consisted of six short vignettes written and directed by women, including "The Cat in the Black Mouse Socks", a story in which Mitchell wears blackface to a party.

[10] In 1988, Mitchell released the song "The Beat of Black Wings" on her album Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm.

The song tells the story of "Killer Kyle", a traumatised soldier she once met in a bar who had just returned from the Vietnam War.

[12] Eric Lott stated that Mitchell "thought she inh[a]bited blackness... That's why she didn't see a problem with her wearing blackface or using the N-word.

"[13] Scholar Miles Parks Grier criticised Mitchell biographers for their inadequate handling of the topic, writing that:

Mitchell in blackface drag acquires a reputation for artistic daring and psychological complexity by impersonating a black pimp figure who accrues neither....

Indeed, the experience of gender confinement as an isolated force may be a mixed blessing of membership in a superior racial caste.

[15] Chaka Khan, who sang backing vocals on Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, would later say that she "loved" the album cover: "(Mitchell's) into color.

[20] On 29 April 2024, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter was given a new album cover on music streaming services.

The new cover features a photo of Mitchell’s face inside the open mouth of a wolf, brought in from a sanctuary, according to photographer Norman Seeff, in the podcast episode 'The Boundary Dweller' from the series 'The Road to Joni' an outtake from the 1985 photo sessions for the later album Dog Eat Dog.