Marsha Hunt (singer and novelist)

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Marsha Hunt is is an African American model, singer, novelist and actress. In late 2004, Hunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, and had chemotherapy but didn't want to go through the process of watching her hair fall out.^[1] "I wanted to take control of my battle. If anyone was going to get rid of my hair, it was going to be me," Hunt said.^[1] "We all had champagne and the women braided my hair, then Mazie (Hunt's granddaughter) started the ball rolling by cutting off the first braid. After that, everyone at that party took turns in cutting off a lock. I think people were wary at first, but when they saw how happy I was - I think I actually cheered when Mazie took her bit off - they relaxed and we had a ball." ^[1]Photo taken in September 2005.

For the American actress born in 1917, see Marsha Hunt (actress).

Marsha Hunt (born April 15, 1946) is an African American model, singer, novelist and actress.

[edit] Early life

Hunt grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where her father was one of America's first black psychiatrists.^[2] She studied at the University of California, Berkeley went to Berkley in 1964 and joined Jerry Rubin on protest marches against the Vietnam War.^[2] In the mid 1960s Hunt moved to Britain and for a time lived in Edinburgh.^[3] "I started hitching here, a student from California's Berkeley, at 19. I hitched on lorries from London, slept in Waverley Station."^[3]

In 1967 Hunt met Mike Ratledge of the Soft Machine. ^[4] Hunt was having trouble getting a visa extension to stay in England and proposed to Ratledge.^[4] Ratledge and Hunt were married on April 15, 1967.^[4] The Soft Machine were heavily booked and there was no time for a honeymoon but Ratledge and Hunt were able to spend two months together before the band headed for France later that year.^[4] Hunt and Ratledge had a short relationship but remained married and the best of friends for many years.^[4]

[edit] Move to London

[edit] Music

Hunt achieved national fame in England in 1968, when she starred as "Dionne" in the first rock musical, Hair, a box office smash on The London Stage.^[2] "What was great about Hair, was that it was my hair. The person on the stage in 1966 was merely an evocation of who I was," says Hunt.^[2] Hunt was professionally associated with musicians such as Mike Ratledge, Alexis Korner, John Mayall, Elton John, and Marc Bolan.^[5] Hunt played at the Isle of Wight music festival in 1969 with her backup band White Trash.^[5] Hunt's first single, a cover of Dr John's Walk on Gilded Splinters was released on Track Records in 1969; an album, Woman Child, followed in 1971.^[6] Hunt met Marc Bolan in 1969 after having a minor hit with Dr. John's "Walk on Gilded Splinters."^[6] "She showed up one night while we were recording "Unicorn," said Tony Visconti.^[6] "The two of them just looked at each other and it was like magic. You could see the shafts of light pouring out of their eyes into each other. They were eating each other up alive. We finished the session unusually early, and Marc and Marsha walked out into the night hand in hand."^[6] Hunt says in her autobiography that the relationship was based on more than physical attraction.^[6] "I personified things which Marc rejected. He was reclusive, macrobiotic, and professed aversion to success," writes Hunt.^[6] "To Marc, my visibility was commercial, and this wasn't appropriate to the serious art of music which he implied was validated by obscurity."^[6] In 1973 Hunt was a member of a panel organized by British magazine Melody Maker to discuss women in music and their options open to black women.^[7] "You got to slip in through the side-door as the statuary representative - and once you're in, then you do your damage," said Hunt.^[7] "But you're kidding yourself if you think you're going to get in on your own terms."^[7]

[edit] Modeling

In 1968 Hunt posed nude for photographer Patrick Lichfield after opening night for Hair ^[8] and the photo appeared on the cover of British Vogue's January 1969 issue.^[9] Almost 40 years later Hunt again posed nude for Litchfield ^[8] recreating the pose for her Vogue Magazine cover after she had had her right breast and lymph glands removed to halt the spread of cancer. The photo appeared on the cover of her 2005 book Undefeated about her battle with cancer.^[10] "The 1968 photo was taken after the first night of Hair and that the 2005 shot was taken in January, five weeks after my right breast and lymph nodes under my right arm had been removed. I enthused about how wonderful it had been working with Patrick under those very different circumstances," wrote Hunt.^[11] Hunt has also been photographed by Lewis Morley, Horace Ove, and Robert Taylor.^[12]

[edit] Relationship with Mick Jagger

Hunt is the mother of Mick Jagger's first child, Karis Jagger, who was born on November 4, 1970 in London. Marsha Hunt is the inspiration of the Stones' hit "Brown Sugar". At the time a member of the cast in the London production of the musical Hair (playing "Dionne"), Hunt reportedly approached Jagger at a party and, rather bluntly, informed him that she wanted to have his baby. Jagger obliged her but would not enter into a long-term relationship with Hunt, who, consequently, had to bring up her daughter as a single mother (although she also wanted to make her way in show business). Jagger even denied being Karis's father and refused payments. A lengthy lawsuit followed, and a settlement making him support Hunt and their daughter was only reached in 1979.^{[citation needed]}

Since then, Mick Jagger has been close to Karis.^[3] Karis would often go on holiday with Mick and his family as a teenager. Jagger attended Karis's graduation from Yale, her wedding in 2000 and was at the hospital for the birth of her son in 2004.^[3] "When you've had a child with somebody he's part of your life. We meet up on occasion. I'm closer to his mother," says Hunt.^[3]

[edit] Writing

[edit] Autobiography

Hunt began writing in 1985. Her first book was her 1986 autobiography, Real Life: The Story of a Survivor. "Writing my autobiography which I called Real Life, I realised that I not only needed silence, I needed to be far from my detractors, where I didn’t feel restricted by someone else’s idea of who I was or what I was capable of."^[13]

In 1996, Hunt wrote the family autobiography Repossessing Ernestine: A Granddaughter Uncovers the Secret History of Her American Family about her grandmother, Ernestine, who was placed in an asylum for nearly 50 years.^[14] Hunt tracked her grandmother down to a rundown nursing home and although Hunt was unable to discover why Ernestine spent 50 years behind bars, Hunt wrote that the reasons may have had more to do with racism and sexism than insanity.^[14]

In 2005 Hunt released her memoir about her battle with cancer, Undefeated.^[1]

[edit] Novels

Hunt published her first novel, Joy, in 1990 about a woman who grew up to join a singing group reminiscent of the Supremes and died an early death. Set in a posh New York apartment in the course of one day in the spring of 1987, the novel contains frequent flashbacks that describe life in a black neighbourhood in the 1950s and 1960s. The book also deals with stardom in the music business and some people's inability, despite their riches, to make their own American Dream come true and to lead fulfilled lives.

Her second novel, Free, published in 1992 tells the story of freed slaves and their children living in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1913.^[15]

Hunt wrote her first four books living in isolation in a remote hideaway in France called La montagne.^[13] "The hermit's existence drove me to create stories and characters and resort to writing them down if only to stave off boredom. That amount of isolation took hold like a drug. My thoughts grew dependent upon the silence and I received only one daily visitor who would be waiting for me each morning at the back door. She was a scrawny barn cat and I could always depend on her to eat and run. Apart from my early evening drive to the nearest patisserie for the daily baguette, I talked to no-one and the villagers in this remote farming enclave grew used to me only waving with a smile from a distance."^[13]

In 1997 she was asked to participate in a documentary film project that resulted in Marsha Hunt's Philadelphia.^[13] During the filming she fell in love with Irish documentary film maker Alan Gilsenan.^[13] "Call me impetuous, but within two months of that Philadelphia shoot, I had closed the shutters of La montagne, left a last bowl of food out for the cat, packed suitcase, typewriter and computer and moved against everybody's better judgement to the Wicklow mountains south of Dublin where Alan and I immediately made a new home."^[13]

During the 1997 Book Festival in Edinburgh, Hunt staged a one-woman protest, picketing Charlotte Square about the "shoddy administration" of the Festival.^[3] The director of the festival was fired in the aftermath of her protest.^[3]

Hunt's 1998 novel Like Venus Fading is inspired by the lives of Adelaide Hall, known as the "lightly-tanned Venus," Josephine Baker, and Dorothy Dandridge.^[16] "If you don't understand about the condition of racism that existed in the States in that period of Irene's life (1920s-1960s), then this sounds unrealistic stuff," Hunt says.^[2] "It was interesting writing the book in Ireland, because the Irish and the black experiences are so similar. Here are two peoples who were overpowered by another group who took their language and their art and defined them for the world."^[2]

[edit] Editing

In 1999 Hunt sought a job of writer-in-residence at Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison and later collected selected writings from the prisoners and edited The Junk Yard: Voices From An Irish Prison.^[17] "Write what you've lived. Write what you know. Write like you would to a trusted friend," Hunt told them.^[17]

The book contains fifteen stories divided into five sections: Childhood, Family Life, The Score, Criminal Life and Prison Life.^[18] One publisher was critical of the repetitive themes of urban poverty, addiction, and life in prison.^[18] "Instead of complaining about the similarity of theme, one should ask why so many have a similar tale to tell," said Hunt.^[18]

[edit] Current projects

Hunt has been working on a book about Jimi Hendrix that she considers her life work.^[3] "I have a unique perspective on the Jimi Hendrix Experience that no-one else alive has because he and I shared something - black Americans who came to London were transformed and re-packaged for the US, although I never became successful there and he did."^[3] No release date has been given.

[edit] Acting

[edit] Film

Hunt's film career included appearances in Dracula AD 1972 (1972) and Britannia Hospital (1982) directed by Lindsay Anderson. In 1990 Hunt played Bianca in the BBC television production of Othello directed by Trevor Nunn.^[12] "I've lived in Hollywood. I don't watch much television, but I must admit that I saw a bit of the Oscars on TV recently and I had to ask myself how those people up on that stage got there," says Hunt.^[2] "When I was in Hollywood, it didn't matter how you made your money - whether from cocaine or good works - and I'm sure it hasn't changed."^[2]

[edit] Theater

In 1994, Hunt performed a one-woman play in Scotland at the Edinburgh Festival playing playing Baby Palatine, a 60-year-old woman who becomes the wardrobe mistress to a female pop group.^[19] The play is based on Hunt's novel Joy.^[19] Hunt was directed in the play by her daughter Karis Jagger.^[19] "It was her idea to do this play together," said Jagger.^[19] "We spent six weeks rehearsing in France. Because the weather was so good we marked out the shape of the stage with my teddy bears and rehearsed in the garden."^[19]

[edit] Documentary

In 1997, Irish documentary film-maker Alan Gilsenan made God Bless America consisting of six American cities seen through the eyes of six American authors.^[13] "Granada asked me to participate in a documentary series featuring American authors giving their personal views of an American city of interest to them," said Hunt.^[13]

One of the cities was Marsha Hunt's Philadelphia and Gilsenan said "In the series, Marsha Hunt says that Democracy and capitalism succeed in America because of slavery so the American family was born out of a crime, and that until America comes to terms with that crime, there won't be any peace." ^[20]

Hunt helped her former partner, Alan Gilsenan, fight colon cancer in 1999.^[21] "I'd been a cancer carer and all these questions were ones we had in relation to him," Hunt says.^[21] "Alan has totally recovered now and is in great shape. I saw him get excellent care and get well. He's now married and has a baby. I think these things can be positive in their way. It can be a wake-up call."^[21]

[edit] Battle with cancer

In late 2004, Hunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, and told to have surgery to remove her right breast and her lymph nodes.^[1]

Hunt decided to have her surgery done in Ireland rather than returning to the United States.^[1] "I had no intention of going to some clinic in America, where I would be treated like just another middle-aged black woman and hounded for details of my health insurance," she said.^[1] "Irish people treat illness, and even death, in a very healthy way. They don't hide away from it and say that they are too busy to visit you. The Irish embrace the fact that you are ill, and it is almost a matter of honour for them to visit you and bring you gifts. I knew that in Ireland I would have a wonderful support system. And I wasn't wrong."^[1]

Hunt decided to have a complete mastectomy. "Everybody talked about me having a reconstruction,' she says. "Reconstruction - as if the breast is miraculously put back to the way it was. In fact, pretty much all you get is your cleavage back; you don't get any feeling or sensitivity. When I was making the documentary, I spoke to three women who had all had reconstructions and each one of them had had problems with it afterwards. And if you think about it, it isn't really a surprise. They take muscles from your back, skin from your thighs, fat from your stomach. You had a breast removed, but the rest of you was fine. Now half your body is hacked about - and for what?"^[1]

[edit] Operation

The day of her operation Hunt wrote a note on her breast to the surgical team, telling them to have fun, make sure they took the right breast off and drew them a flower.^[1] Once the operation was over Hunt says she felt happiness that the cancer had been removed.^[1] "I didn't mourn my breast for a minute. I was still alive, still gorgeous, still perfect. In fact, I felt better than perfect. I felt sexier without my breast, because now I had a battle scar that showed I had faced up to what people fear more than anything - and got through it." says Hunt.^[1] "You have to be practical, bite the bullet as you say. When somebody tells you your dick's going to fall off, this is going to happen whether you like it or not. Life will be a bitch but you have to figure out how you're gonna live it. Life is all hills and valleys. You better be enjoying the hills. There's no point weeping and crying in the valleys."^[3]

After her mastectomy, she contracted the superbug MRSA.^[1] "In the end, I was given Zyrox - a very expensive antibiotic - and the infection started to leave my body."^[1]

[edit] Chemotherapy

Finally Hunt had chemotherapy but didn't want to go through the process of watching her hair fall out.^[1] "I wanted to take control of my battle. If anyone was going to get rid of my hair, it was going to be me," she said.^[1] "We all had champagne and the women braided my hair, then Mazie (Hunt's granddaughter) started the ball rolling by cutting off the first braid. After that, everyone at that party took turns in cutting off a lock. I think people were wary at first, but when they saw how happy I was - I think I actually cheered when Mazie took her bit off - they relaxed and we had a ball." ^[1]

Hunt has written about her battle with cancer in a memoir, Undefeated. For the cover of her book Hunt again posed nude for Patrick Litchfield ^[8] after she had had her right breast and lymph glands removed to halt the spread of cancer and recreated the pose for her iconic Vogue Magazine cover from 1969. ^[10]

Hunt has also been the subject of a documentary, Beating Breast Cancer on ITV, broadcast on 26 September 2005.

Hunt has lived in Ireland since 1995. She also lives in France where she owns a home in the countryside.^[3]

[edit] Citations

[edit] External links

• Marsha Hunt at the Internet Movie Database