rembrandts-neckerchief

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

"What do you do when they kill everything you believe in?

does the dream end?"

"you greive and you keep breathing,

you keep believing."

aaahhhhhh I love Cyrus and I love Masai and this image wouldnt leave my head so hope you like it!!

Reminder to just make art even if it isnt going exactly how you want go make art and fun >:)

p.s. very random guys but dont forget to do boob checks!

okay lots of love please please please comment it sustains me and keeps me alive to make more art. AND thankyou so much for all the lovely likes and comments and reblogs its made me very happy you guys are so nice :* xx

okay goodnight sweet dreams

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

Hey! I made a community for Warriors fans! Come in, come in!

(I‘ll be posting from my main, raindayscribbling.)

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

NOW LEARN SOMETHIN

aka the real Warriors, the real truce, the real Cyruses, and their real legacy

in the 70s there was not one figure named Cyrus calling for peace and engineering a truce between gangs. because in some ways, there were hundreds. let's set the scene. in the 17th century a swedish settler's house hosted a conference where the dutch and Lenape signed peace treaties. the settler's name was bronck. no one knows who put a frickin X in it, but eventually bronck's land twisted into The Bronx. more of his name stayed intact than any of those treaties.

in 1971, street violence and arson in the south Bronx were inescapable. the Ghetto Brothers named one Black Benjie to the position usually referred to as "warlord", the officer in charge of holding turf borders. except they used a different term, "peace counselor". the Ghetto Brothers were one of the biggest gangs in new york city, but they were also a band, and they had a version of the Black Panthers' free children's breakfast program (which had developed while Angela Davis was with the Panthers), and they advocated for healthcare, and Black Benjie in particular stood up for staying clean and keeping his neighborhood kids in school.

on december 2, 1971, several other gangs were found attacking kids on Ghetto Brothers corners, and they sent their peace ambassador to cool them off. Black Benjie, determined to talk peace, arrived to be told "peace, shit" before a lead pipe and machete were pulled on him. he told his brothers to run. Black Benjie never came home.

one of the street's strongest voices of harmony was killed. and for nothing. blood was on the air. Lorine Padilla, former first lady of the Savage Skulls, recalled, “i knew we were going to war." the Ghetto Brothers put together an armory and grabbed members of the Mongols and Seven Immortals, brutally beating one. (he may have been innocent, and no one was ever convicted for Black Benjie's killing.) several other gangs promised to help take down any gang involved in the killing, just waiting on word from the Ghetto Brothers. everyone knew an all-out turf war was just a matter of time. but before that word went out, another Ghetto Brother and another Benjy, Benjy Melendez, suggested they talk to Black Benjie's mother, Gwendolyn Benjamin, before they commit to that path.

as remembered by Padilla, Gwendolyn just said, “I don’t [want] war. I want peace. My son died for peace."

peace seemed impossible. listening to the end of Warriors can feel pretty bleak. cause who would show up to another peace meeting unarmed after peace's biggest proponent was just killed on their own blocks? right? but here's the truth. they decided to try. within days, the Ghetto Brothers sent out a different message than the city was waiting for. they brought over 150 representatives from over 40 crews to meet at neutral territory, the Hoe Avenue Boys Club of America. this included exactly two women, the leaders of two all female gangs, who were made to sit in back. cops' snipers and reporters waited outside, hungry for blood. Melendez remembers constantly scanning everyone for weapons that might have snuck in. it was tense. and it was slow. they talked of blame. and justice. and then infrastructure. and the lack of social services in the south bronx. and the root causes of gangs. and in the tapes of the meeting: "the whitey don’t come down here man and have no heat in the fucking winter time. we gotta make it a better place to live.” and it turned out hundreds of people had been thinking the same thing. and Melendez told the conclave they weren't gangs anymore, they were an organization looking forward and building something. and then the gang leaders shook hands.

and they signed a treaty.

on december 7, 1971, with Black Benjie's body five days cold, the Hoe Avenue Peace Treaty dictated: groups must respect each other and their women, disputes must be settled by talking or, if needs must, 1-on-1 gladiator-style, "each member clique of the Family will be able to wear their colors in other member cliques’ turf without being bothered", and "PEACE BETWEEN ALL GANGS AND A POWERFUL UNITY.”

the play used to be, crews rocking colors on others' turf would be forced to hand over those clothes. then often, that crew would come back angry and try to get them back, and a war could start. (side note, this is part of what's going on in Orphantown, and i think having one of the circles be unaware of the hit out and following yesterday's etiquette is a really clean, efficient way of establishing the world and stakes.)

but now, the streets were open world. it wasn't perfect and wasn't always followed and still allowed for some violence, but the truce held well enough that Kool Herc could DJ a party in 1973--one and a half years and two and a half miles from the Hoe Avenue peace summit--scratching and emceeing while the crowd b-boyed and sprayed graffiti. musical and cultural ideas could spread from his own jamaican rhythms to Afrika Bambaataa further east and Grandmaster Flash who was now bouncing all around the Bronx.

the spark of decades of tension turned toward creation caught, via parties and cassettes. amidst a borough its own landlords were trying to burn down for the money, this sound became the voice of a culture fighting to keep being heard. over half a century later, hip-hop is celebrated in museums and on every radio, new york city is a tourism capitol of the world, and we get Warriors the album. music scholars call that party in '73 the birth of hip-hop, and many agree that party and its effects wouldn't have been possible without the Hoe Avenue Peace Treaty.

and that summit only happened because a grieving mother set down retribution and called out for peace.

bibliography https://ny.curbed.com/2019/5/3/18525908/south-bronx-fires-decade-of-fire-vivian-vazquez-documentary https://backstoryradio.org/blog/a-bronx-peace/ https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/06/03/black-benjie-ghetto-brothers-gangs-hoe-avenue-peace-treaty-south-bronx-longwood/ https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/651933/why-its-called-the-bronx https://history.hiphop/dj-kool-herc-clive-campbell/ https://rockthebells.com/articles/dj-kool-herc-rec-room-party/

thank you for reading! i get this isn't typically what normal fandom is about, but i'm into history and i think to meet a piece like this halfway, we gotta try caring about the stuff Eisa cares about. i'm writing this in a terrifying moment in my country's history, and it is nourishing to learn the practicalities of how beauty has sprung from hopelessness. it's happened before.

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

Ajax is someone who can be so transgender. In both directions actually.

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

Just a reminder to the ppl writing Warriors (musical) fics on ao3, when tagging characters don't use "[character name] (The Warriors)" or "[character name]/[character name] (The Warriors)"

That's the 1979 film tag! Musical Warriors tags don't show up on ao3 when you're adding them to your fic yet because of how recent the musical was released. "[character name] (Warriors)" is the right tag!

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

Extremely in character for me to be obsessed with the Warrior with the fewest lines. However. Thats part of her appeal you guys <3 shes hanging back so she can observe the situation <3 also she has anxiety LMM told me himself. Ilu Rembrandt ur everything. To me.

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

hey boppers, hear me out on this one: cleon and masai.

the bizarre intimacy of tending to a bruise on the delicate face of a gorgeous woman, knowing every weapon and sneaker and boot and cigarette those injuries came from, knowing those injuries were put there on your orders.

and then she opens her mouth and gives you something to believe in after your hope was ripped away.

how the hell does a man handle something like that? how the hell does a man get a woman like that off his mind?

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

"Taggin' every city surface with my masterpiece!"

Progression pic + ref

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

Is it too soon to ship Cleon and Masai?

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

silly :)

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

You need to know one thing about me:

Whatever fandom I‘m in, I headcanon at least one person as physically disabled and/or some variation of blind. Now, Warriors makes this a bit hard.

Anyways, anyone wanna talk about cane user Cyrus (or any other disability hcs you have 👀?) with me?

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

WAIT OMG ITS YOU??? HIIIIII

It is! I needed more space to be insane about (the) Warriors lol.

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

If anyone was asking themselves how the animation is going: Like this.

Jordannnnnnn (wip!!)

THAT LOOKS SO SO SOOOO GOOD OMG??? BWEH??? BWEHBWHEBHEWHJWHEWJWEHWEJHEWEWBHWEJBWJ???????????????? I LOVEE THE FONT THING AND LASO OUGH IT ALL LOOKS SOOOOO GOOD OMG I CANNOT WAIT FOR WHEN YOU FINISH THIS ITS GOING TO BE INSANNEEEE

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

You need to know one thing about me:

Whatever fandom I‘m in, I headcanon at least one person as physically disabled and/or some variation of blind. Now, Warriors makes this a bit hard.

Anyways, anyone wanna talk about cane user Cyrus (or any other disability hcs you have 👀?) with me?

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

I might be animating Still Breathin‘- (ID under the cut!)

[Image ID: Three animation frames, labelled "8 seconds, 10 seconds, and 12 seconds". Their background is black and they show drawings in bright red. Every one of them has Cleon from her chest up, having a big, locked hairstyle, relatively big eyebrows and a flat nose. Additionally, she has two lip piercings shown as rings and a few scars scattered on the left side of her face. She is drawn in a half profile, to the right, and wearing two necklaces, a jacket, and a top with a low cutout. Next to her in every frame is Masai‘s hand, holding a lit zippo lighter with the Gramercy Riffs‘ logo, an R with the top part being an arrow and the hole a star. His pinky finger is missing from the first joint outside the hand onward. In the first frame, the hand is really close to Cleon, both of them shaking, and Cleon has wide eyes and an open mouth. In the second frame, the hand is a bit further away, being pulled in that direction, but both Cleon and Masai are still shaking. Cleon is squinting now, her mouth in the process of being pulled into a line. She looks hurt, one pair of ellipses and the word "oh…" are floating around her head. In the third frame, Cleon is clearly in pain. Her eyes are almost closed and her mouth is a wobbly like. This is also strengthened by the words "fuck" and "ow." floating around her head. Masai‘s hand is even further away now and is not shaking at that point. End image ID.]

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

not me looking for warriors merch and realising the pricing is BAAAAAAAD

[rembrandts-neckerchief]

I know the warriors vests are technically brown and the lighting just made them look red but you can rip those dark red/maroon vests from my cold dead hands. They are real to me.