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emilia3546 · 3 years

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Shadowsinger Part 22 - Gwynriel

ACOSF Spoilers! Do Not read this unless you have finished ACOSF and the Azriel bonus chapter*

Masterlist with all previous chapters

TW: Mentions of past SA

*****

Gwyn smiled softly at the female who showed her around, both dropping their gazes when a group of males turned the corner, and Gwyn fought the urge to squirm under their prolonged gaze,

"You alright?" Shit, she must have noticed,

"Yes. Fine, I just wish they wouldn't stare too long,"

"Take it as a compliment, it's the only way to really ignore them,"

"Oh, it's not that," it totally was that, but she wasn't going to admit it, that would open other conversations that she didn't want to have, maybe with Nesta and Emerie, maybe with Azriel, but not someone she just met, "It's my husband," she lied. "He doesn't like when other males look to long, I'd hate someone to get hurt."

"Oh. Fair enough." She fell into silence, a hint of sadness crossing her features for a moment, but she hid it away too quickly for Gwyn to figure her out, shaking her head and smiling again quickly, "Since you're not a seamstress, we'll get you to help with collecting laundry for now, Cauldron knows there's a lot now," Gwyn chuckled despite herself,

"That's the thing with armies isn't it, they do make a mess,"

"They do, especially these young boys, they have no idea that their shit gets tidied up by someone, not just magic," Gwyn chuckled again, but she didn't miss the flash of fear, undisguisable this time, "Please don't repeat that."

"Never," Gwyn promised, "You can speak freely around me,"

"No." The other female whispered, "I can't. Even if you don't tell my brother, someone else might hear, the walls are thin here, but thank you." She offered Gwyn a smile before slipping away, and Gwyn made to call after her, but had no idea what to say, she didn't even know her name. Perhaps she was used to people not bothering to learn it. Gwyn made a silent promise to herself to learn every female's name here before they left. She sighed, finding her way down the corridor, and knocked on the first door, hoping that the room's occupant would be gone, and she could just grab the laundry and run,

"Hello," the door swung open, and Gwyn stepped back, "To what do I owe the pleasure," the male ran his gaze up and down Gwyn's body, then tugged her chin up, holding on when she tried to pull away, "Don't be rude," he chastised, and Gwyn trembled, her fear not completely an act, "Come to keep me warm, huh?" she'd never be able to go for her dagger quickly enough if he decided to try anything. She blinked back the tears welling in her eyes, she could still take him down, all she needed to do was break his hold, she could easily manage that, a quick punch to his elbow joint, then she'd duck under his arm, throw a punch to the nose, a knee to the groin, she'd be gone before he knew what had happened. With a plan in her head she squashed down that fear, she wasn't helpless anymore, Azriel would have never let her do this, never brought her if he didn't think she could throw down with every male here and win. And she could win, she didn't need her dagger, she just needed to be quicker than him. She swallowed when the male tugged her face from side to side,

"Let go, please," she said, wriggling, but he only tightened his hold, ignoring her request, and ran his gaze along her body again, the entitlement in that gaze making her see red, but she held her tongue, she had to try and get out of this without drawing attention first, if that failed, then she'd break his balls.

"What's a pretty thing like you doing here?"

"My husband sent me to help the others with laundry, sir," she muttered, hating every word, but placed enough emphasis on her husband that the male let go,

"Why are the good ones always married?" He muttered angrily, "Go on then," she slipped past him, half-surprised that he'd let her go, although it was probably more for his own skin than hers, after all, if he'd tried anything more, Azriel would be forced to demand a duel. Not that she worried for Azriel, none of the males here would last a minute, but it would draw attention, attention they did not need. She subtly glanced around the room, nothing of note, she wouldn't bother searching here.

She nodded to the male as she slipped back out past him, her heart still hammering against her chest. She only relaxed once she heard the door close, the male's gaze no longer boring into the back of her head, and knocked on the next one, finding it empty, but with a pile of laundry to be collected, and nothing helpful upon a quick sweep of the room. The next few rooms were similarly useless, a few having occupants, one female, left there by her father, who didn't trust her not to 'do something dumb', in other words, run off. She seemed so bored and lonely that Gwyn did wait with her for a few minutes, offering much need conversation, her name was Laylah, she was from Ironcrest, and she was twenty, unmarried, and hated being here. Gwyn offered her own, fake, name, and explained what she was doing, suggesting that she ask her father if she could help, saying that she might well be able to simply help with clothing repair. Laylah grinned at that and agreed, waving as Gwyn left. The next two rooms each had a single male occupant, one simply waved her in, paying her no attention, the other stared a bit, but left her alone, it seemed the fake wedding band was doing it's job, mostly.

The final door on that corridor did not lead to a bedchamber, nor was there any laundry to collect, but it was interesting, an office of some sort. She slipped inside, closing the door behind her, with the bag of laundry leaning against it, there was an open window, if it came to it, she could jump out and be hidden beneath the ledge before anyone could see her. This didn't seem too important, but Gwyn rifled through the drawers, ignoring most things, but a letter caught her eye, one between the late Queen Briallyn, and someone who seemed to be a general. The letter was encoded somehow, and Gwyn didn't know enough to be able to decipher it, she glanced around the room, finding a blank piece of paper, and copied down the letter, rolling up the copy and slipping it into the bodice of her gown before setting everything back to rights, there was no trace she'd been in there when she left.

The corridor was, thankfully, empty when Gwyn re-emerged, quickly running back to deposit the laundry and continue collecting the rest of it. Most rooms she visited that day were just as useless as the first few, but there were some that she mentally marked to come back to, either when they were empty, or she had more time, or fewer eyes on her. She lost track of the time, running to get back to their room before that evening's training finished, she was expected to be there waiting, and if she wasn't there, someone would guess something was up.

The hallways were empty as she flew along them, slowing to a brisk walk when she heard voices at the end of their corridor,

"She not there?" Shit. Azriel would have to berate her now, in front of those others, whether they were the same as before or not, she'd hoped not to force him to do that,

"Amirah! where have you been?" Gwyn almost flinched at the accusatory tone, it's not real. It's not real.

"I-"

"You know what, I don't care," she leapt forwards, towards making Azriel's comforting hand on her lower back look like a shove, but relaxed, it wasn't a big deal then, "Get in there," she ran inside, hiding in the corner until the voice faded and Azriel shut the door, "You okay? Something happen?"

"Not really, just an idiot, I lost track of time, I should have gotten back earlier, I hate to put you in a difficult position."

"Nah, you didn't, you just solidified their belief in us, letting me 'scare' you inside,"

"Like you could scare me," she scoffed, "You're a soppy baby at heart, Shadowsinger,"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. I'm the one who does the protecting around here." Azriel laughed again,

"Whatever would I do without my beautiful little Valkyrie?"

"Die, probably," Gwyn muttered, wrinkling her nose up when Azriel leaned down to kiss her cheek, "Oi, go away, I'm trying to concentrate,"

"So, I'm distracting?"

"I think you know the answer to that," she rolled her eyes, "Listen now, I found something," all jokes died at those words,

"Show me,"

"A letter, from Briallyn to a general, I think. It's in code, I don't know how to decrypt it, I'm hoping you will."

"Let me see," Azriel leaned back in his chair and pursed his lips as he studied the letter, "It's an old code, one I haven't seen in a while, I don't remember it all, but, hang on a minute, you got a pencil?" Gwyn silently handed one over, rather inappropriately smiling at the way his hair fell over his forehead when he leaned forwards to note down the encryption he remembered. "Are you staring at me, Gwyn?"

"What can I say, you're quite useful as my eye candy," he snorted in disbelief, but silently shook his head,

"You're a menace, Berdara,"

"You can thank Nesta for that," she grinned, standing to cross the room, leaning over him, an elbow resting on his shoulder as he noted down the last few words he'd been able to decipher.

"Not groundbreaking, I'm afraid, but we do know that they're planning something. She mentioned a winged army, the Illyrians I think, so whatever the big plan is, it's been in the works a while,"

"Mhhhm, here, does that name ring any bells?"

"Don't think so, why?"

"I met a female with that name today, maybe it means nothing, but, any ideas about the words around it?" Azriel frowned back at the letter,

"Something about her father, what did you find out about her?"

"She's from Ironcrest, unmarried, lives alone with her father, who doesn't really trust her, she's restless, wants to explore the world, it seemed like her father's looking for ways to tie her down. She's still unclipped, thank the Cauldron, but she wanted to escape a bit I think, does it say anything about her role, or just that she exists?"

"Hang on," he started writing out what seemed to be a sort of dodgy alphabet, cross referencing to the letter, "You got your notes on the queens?"

"Yeah?"

"Who's married?"

"None, one is widowed, with a son."

"They want to marry Laylah to that boy."

"But she's immortal!"

"I don't think they care. She's the Camp Lord's daughter," she hadn't mentioned that earlier, "The male's a monster, he'll see this as a way to build an alliance,"

"By selling his daughter into marriage with a human, whose people hate all fae?"

"Yes. She's not a person in his eyes, just something he can use to improve his standing, to bring him closer to ruling all of Illyria, not just Ironcrest, he's never kept his ambitions secret,"

"Why am I only just hearing about this now?"

"Because I didn't think it was relevant, I hadn't even considered that it might be a part of his motivations for leaving, but if we're right," he trailed off, "Shit." he finished, "If we're right, we'll have to take her with us when we leave, can you get close to her again? Subtly try and see if she's loyal to the Night Court or not?"

"Yeah, that should be fine, but what if I can't get to her?"

"Just try, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." She sighed and stepped back when Azriel pushed his chair out, tugging her into his lap. She sighed again and looped her arms around his neck, leaning into him as she closed her eyes. "You said there was an idiot earlier?"

"He, um, it doesn't matter,"

"Yes, it does," Azriel pressed a kiss to the top of her head, his thumb stroking up and down her ribcage, "It's clearly upset you, whatever it is, talk to me, please,"

"The great Spymaster begging, not something I expected," she laughed,

"Stop deflecting, if you don't want to talk, that's fine, but I'm worried about you, okay? You're alone out there, and someone upset you, I'd like to help if I can,"

"Az, really, it's okay, it was just one of the males making a few comments, and he just made me uncomfortable,"

"Just some comments?"

"And, um, he grabbed my face," she quieted when he stilled, going dangerously quiet, "He let go, Az,"

"Before or after you mentioned your 'husband'?" Oh shit, she couldn't lie, he'd know, and she didn't want him to think she didn't trust him, she did, but she didn't want him upset, she didn't want him to do something stupid,

"After," she whispered, turning in his lap to cup his face at the shuddering breath he drew in, "It's okay, he didn't hurt me, and he let me go, I'm fine, it's not worth it,"

"He scared you." Not a question, but Gwyn answered anyway,

"Yes." She looked away, afraid to see the disappointment that she couldn't defend herself against one male,

"Who was it?" Gwyn shook her head, "Who, Gwyn?" He softened his voice, but the threat was no less clear,

"I'm not telling you, you'll kill him, and draw attention, and bust our cover,"

"I don't care,"

"You don't care? I care, we're here for a reason, are you hearing yourself right now?" She demanded, glaring at him, but relented slightly at the fear in his eyes beneath the layers of anger, he was worried about her, and that was allowed, but she couldn't let him jeopardize their mission for her.

*****

Gwyn was right, he wasn't thinking straight, but all he wanted was to find that male, whoever he was, and tear him apart with his bare hands. This male who'd thought to put his hands on the female he loved, the female who'd time and again proven that she was the strongest person he knew. He would kill everyone in this damn palace if he had to, but he had to know who it was, at least so that he could makes sure that the male didn't walk off any future battlefield. She was still staring at him, and he sighed, drawing in a few deep breaths, her calmness helping to ground him as she rubbed her thumbs across his cheekbone,

"I know," she muttered, "I know, I wanted to break his balls, but we can't, once we have what we need, once we're leaving, then you can kill him." There was no hesitation in her eyes, she wanted the male dealt with, and she wouldn't begrudge him this, but she put their mission first, like he should. Still, the idea of letting someone who had hurt her just wander around was too much, he should put the mission first, but for some reason he couldn't.

She's worried you think less of her for not punching him in the gut, she did want to though.

Of course, she did, it's Gwyn.

She thinks you'll be disappointed.

"Gwyn?" Azriel slowly turned her face back towards him, "Are you really okay?"

"Yes. Why do you keep asking?"

"I'm waiting for an answer I believe."

"Well, I'm fine,"

"I'm not buying it, Gwyn, please, let me help,"

"I'm fine, I'm not hurt, I played the 'husband' card and he let me go, it rattled me, and he scared me, and I couldn't even deal with one male, and that's pathetic, but I'm fine. I'm fine surrounded by these types of males, I can defend myself, apparently, but today I failed, but not every female here can, and I have you to shout for, to threaten with, what if they don't? What if their husbands, fathers, brothers don't care? What if they are those males? I couldn't deal with one, and I'm supposed to be able to, and what if I panic when it really matters, what if something happens again at some point and I just panic?" She was shaking as she spoke, unable to stop the words, and Azriel just held her, brushing the tears away, letting her speak, "I'm supposed to be good at this, I can defend myself, but I got scared, and for a few seconds I lost it, I only made a plan once it was too late if he'd tried anything, he could have done anything before I'd sorted my mind out to stop him." She sucked in an unsteady breath, then another, and another, shallower, faster.

"Breathe in," Azriel ordered, "No, in," she released the breath, "Gwyn. Breathe in." She did as he said, panic flooding her gaze as she clung to him, "Now hold it," she was still sobbing quietly, but she did hold the breath, "Now breathe out." She did and immediately sucked in a shallow breath, "I want you to hold when you breathe out as well, love," She nodded, struggling to draw in another deep breath, but held Azriel's gaze, "I've got you," she breathed in, and held it, "I love you," she breathed out, and held it, "You're safe," in again, "You're here with me," out and hold, "You are the bravest," she drew in another breath, more controlled this time, "The strongest female I've ever met."

She released the breath, finally able to breathe without holding in between breaths, "I am always, always in awe of you, Gwyn, you astound me every day. Today, you found your head, you didn't let your fear win, you escaped the situation." She nodded, and buried her face in his neck, still managing those deep breaths, murmuring something to herself, but when she quieted, Azriel continued, "Every day that you don't let the fear win in a victory, each time you win out over that fear is another 'fuck you' to the ones who hurt you, each time you choose to be happy over being afraid is another day that I am in awe of you," his own tears were falling now, "Please, Gwyn, never think less of yourself for your fear, it is only with that fear that you can be brave, there is no courage without fear, and you prove every day, that I have no idea, none, what true courage is. You have that true courage, and it's part of why I fell for you, and no-one can take it from you, no-one, so promise me one thing, never forget that, never forget that your courage cannot be broken, not by anyone, and certainly not by your fear. Can you promise me that, never forget?" Gwyn sniffed, and snuggled into him again, but nodded, sending another tears slipping down Azriel's own face,

"I promise."

#fanfiction #fanfic #acotar #acosf #a court of thorns and roses #a court of silver flames #Gwyn #gwynriel #azriel x gwyn #gwyneth berdara #Gwyn acosf #Azriel #Azwyn

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luciehercndale · 4 years

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James Herondale and Cordelia Carstairs: 1001 Nights and Layla and Majnun

Yet another essay/analysis about James Herondale and Cordelia Carstairs and the references of their story with classic Middle East literature books such as “1001 Nights” and “Layla and Majnun” and how those books might have inspired some TLH storylines.

Similarities between “1001 Nights” characters and James and Cordelia

The Layla references by James and Alastair

The Scheherezade storyteller

The metaphor of James and Cordelia’s relationship

Cordelia as James’s link to this world

In the Classic Reimagined with Shadowhunters characters book, Cordelia and James are pictured as Scheherazade and sultan Shahryar from “1001 Nights”, and she is probably telling him a story in that art. This book is a collection of folk tales and it is often referred to as “Arabian Nights” and has elements of different Middle East cultures. In short, the sultan Shahryar marries virgin women and then he kills them after the night they spend together. After some time, there aren’t virgins anymore, so the vizier's daughter, Scheherazade, offers herself as the next wife/queen and survives because for 1000 nights she tells the sultan a story, which she never finishes, to keep him curious. The sultan spares her life because he wants to know how the stories end, and after 3 years (1,001 days) she finishes the stories but the sultan has fallen in love with her and he doesn’t kill her.

Like Scheherazade, Cordelia likes books and likes to tell stories. Cordelia is Persian and this collection of tales also contains Persian elements, and the name Scheherazade means “of noble lineage” from Middle Persian. Cordelia also offered herself to marry James to save him from facing judgement from the Clave.

The name of the Sultan, Shaharyar, means “holder of the realm” as king/prince, because the “shah” was the crown king/prince/emperor in Persia/Iran. James loves to read as well and he has expressed several times in CoG2 that he wants to hear Cordelia’s stories.

“Night” in Arabic is “Layla”, which is not only the title of “1001 Nights” in Arabic (“Alf Laylah wa-Laylah”), but it also refers to “Layla and Majnun”. The only time James calls Cordelia “Layla” is when he has the scalding fever and is in and out of consciousness. Alastair also calls Cordelia “Layla”, which is not just super cute but also a reference to their Persian heritage and it also refers to the aesthetic behind Cordelia and James. Cordelia is the night and James the day, but Cordelia is also the fire and James is the shadow. Cordelia is also a heroine like Scheherazade, of course. In literature, the Scheherazade storyteller is also someone who tells a story and is fighting with death, which means that they are telling their story to the reader but they know that they don’t have much time because death is around the corner. If you consider the trouble happening in CoG2, every character of TLH risks to die, especially since we have different POVs and each character tells their own story from their perspective. The only character writer in TLH is Lucie, who also notices how life is terrible and unpredictable, while she only wanted to put joy into her stories:

She felt somewhere in the core of her heart the truth of what her mother had just said. And one should put truth in books, she thought, but this would never be the sort of thing she put in the pages of The Beautiful Cordelia. Books were about experiencing joy. This was the raw and awful stuff of life.

It was much too terrible.

When James has the scalding fever, Cordelia reads him poems and tells him about “Layla and Majnun” by Nizami. From Days Past: Cirenworth Hall, 1900:

She read him the poems of Nizami, and especially the story of Layla and Majnun, one she clearly loved and had known since she was very small. Her cheeks grew unexpectedly red at the more romantic parts: the poor boy falling in love with the beautiful Layla on first sight, wandering mad in the desert when they were separated.

If we were to analyze this, we could say that it reflects James and Cordelia’s story to some degree. James didn’t fall for Cordelia at first sight because he had the gracelet in most of the times they met through the years, but when the gracelet is off and especially after this moment with Cordelia tending to him while he was sick, James is not able to keep her out of his mind even when he later meets Grace again in Idris. Now I don’t know what will happen, but until the gracelet is off, James will act as doesn’t love Cordelia unless their bond breaks the spell of the gracelet. Or Cortana could destroy the gracelet? The last part of this section I reported above “wandering mad in the desert when they were separated” made me think about the shadow’s realm. The realm is like a desert because there is nobody around, and when James goes there before he finally meets Belial, it’s deserted as there is no one there (even if I guess there are demons, but it’s mostly a lonely place). Cordelia is the only one who went to the shadow realm with James and seems to be a threat to Belial in that dimension, because of Cortana. Will James go back to the shadow realm and will Cordelia have to look for him again like at the end of CoG2? That could have been a foreshadowing for the ending and of James and Cordelia finally meeting Belial, but who knows if that won’t come into play again in the future. James could be unable to go back to the normal world and he could be stuck in the realm. Just a thought.

Even when James has the scalding fever and travels to the shadow realm, Cordelia is the only one who is able to bring him back and to their world, which means that there is a link between them, something in Cordelia and James both, a pull. Perhaps it’s the affection they feel for each other, the fiery passion that they could unleash after the gracelet is finally off. Like we saw in the whispering room. That was raw and unrelenting passion, the metaphor of Cordelia and James as a couple: fire and shadow. Cordelia is the fire/match that lit James on fire. Here’s more quotes from Chapter 3, Days Past: Cirenworth Hall, 1900 to support this idea:

He reached for her, and the shadow that was his hand caught hers, darkness against flesh. He wondered how his touch felt to her. His whole body was tensed, like a horse shying from thunder. The room smelled of lightning.

“James, you must hold on. You must. Don’t go anywhere,” Cordelia said. “Stay with me.”

“ ‘ I sought not fire, yet is my heart all flame. Layla, this love is not of earth.’ ”

He shuddered and felt himself come back to this world fully, felt his body return to the space he occupied.

Note: There is also a parallel scene where it’s Alastair who tells Cordelia to stay with him, which could be a hint that Alastair might be the link for Cordelia to stay in this world if she ever falls into the shadow realm with James, perhaps (like Lucie could also be another link for James as his sister). In the flashback from Chapter 20, Days Past: Cirenworth Hall, 1898:

When he looked suspicious, she said, “I could use some help, Alastair. You see how careless my form is.” Alastair came and took the knife from her. “Very careless,” he agreed. “I know swordplay comes naturally to you, but not everything will. You must slow down. Pay attention to your feet. Now, follow my gestures. That’s it, Layla. Stay with me.” And she would.

To reinforce the parallelism between famous Middle East literature and English literature, we also have “The Beautiful Cordelia”, which is not a real book but a story in the making, since Lucie started writing it when she was 12 and she still hasn’t finished it. It’s also a story-within-the-story like the narrative in “1001 Nights”. Lucie is also telling her own story to the readers, and in CoG2 she is writing about Cordelia who is a beautiful red haired woman. Cruel Prince James, inspired by her brother James, is one of the characters of her book even though we don’t know if he is the Lord Hawke who adored Cordelia and supposedly is her main love interest.

One thing that differs in “1001 Nights” and “Layla and Majnun” is the ending. The first has a happy ending because Scheherazade and Shahryar fall in love and she doesn’t die because she becomes queen. In the other book, however, which is sort of a “Romeo and Juliet” love story, the ending is not happy. Layla’s father doesn’t want her to be with Majnun, because he considers the man mentally unstable (Majnun means “crazy”). In the end Layla marries someone else and Majnun roams in the desert because he can’t accept to live in a world without her. They die without seeing each other again, both heartbroken because they can’t be with the other person.

Now don’t take the books word for word. They are inspirations for the main story for sure, but the good thing of inspirations is that they never have the same ending of the original.

Thanks for reading! I know it’s quite long, but I don’t have the gift of brevity, I’m sorry. 🤣

#Cordelia Carstairs #james herondale #James and Cordelia #cordelia and james #jordelia #1001 nights #layla and majnun #alastair carstairs #lucie herondale #scheherazade #the last hours #Chain of Gold #chain of thorns #chain of iron #the shadowhunter chronicles #tlh #tsc #tlh theories #my edits

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vrnicky-rp · 3 years

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Res: to be carefree again. I can't afford that. *sighs and drinks his drink again*

Laylah: i just wanted to have a nice walk around, again, nice to meet you *she smiles starting to walk away being followed by Kade*

Nicky: bye miss!

Edan: goodbye my queen.. ah, hello Kade

Kade: heya. Again your bro? *Edan nods*

#the boys answers!#swapfell crystal #sf crystal #sf crystal sans #self insert

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dustedmagazine · 3 years

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Punk’d History, Vol. VIII: This Machine [blank] Fascists

Photo by Richard Young

It has the appearance of a worrisome pattern: any number of punk rock’s founding figures embraced the symbolics of Nazi Germany. Ron Asheton, an original and indispensable member of the Stooges, played a number of gigs wearing a red swastika armband, and liked to sport Iron Cross medals and a Luftwaffe-style leather jacket. Sid Vicious loved his bright scarlet, swastika-emblazoned tee shirt, and Siouxsie Sioux, during her tenure as the It-Girl of the Bromley Contingent, mixed her breast-baring, black leather bondage gear with a bunch of “Nazi chic.” And how many early Ramones songs (inevitably penned by Dee Dee) referenced Nazi gear, concepts and geography? “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World,” “Commando,” “It’s a Long Way Back to Germany,” “All’s Quiet on the Eastern Front,” and so on—for sure, more than a few.

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“Appearance” is the key term. Poor Sid lacked the sobriety and smarts to have much of a grasp of fascism as an ideology. Siouxsie was just taking the piss, and gleefully pissing off the mid-1970s British general public, for much of whom World War II was still a living memory. Asheton and Dee Dee? Both were sons of hyper-masculine military men. Asheton’s father was a collector of WWII artefacts, and the guitarist shared his father’s fascination. When the Stooges adopted an ethos and aesthetic hostile to the late-1960s prevailing Flower Power rock’n’roll subculture, the Nazi accoutrement seemed to him fitting signs of the band’s anger and alienation. Dee Dee hated his father, an abusive Army officer who married a German woman. Dee Dee spent some of his youth in post-war West Germany, in which Nazi symbols were highly charged with anxiety and vituperation. Casual veneration of Nazis was a convenient way to reject the triumphal ennobling of the Good War, and of the military men associated with its traditions. And (as Sid, Siouxsie and Asheton also noticed) it really bothered the squares.

None of that makes the superficial use of the swastika or phrases like “Nazi schatzi” any less offensive — it simply underscores that in the cases noted above, the offense was the thing. The politics weren’t even an afterthought, because the political itself had been dismissed as corrupt, boring or simply the native territory of the very people the punks were striking out against. If that’s where the relation between punk and fascism ceased, there wouldn’t be much more to write about.

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The post-punk moment in England provided opportunities to rethink and restrategize the nascent détournement of Siouxsie’s fashionable provocations. Genesis P-Orridge and the rest of Throbbing Gristle were a brainy bunch, and their play with fascist signifiers was a good deal more complex. The band’s logo and their occasional appearance in gun-metal grey uniforms clearly alluded to Nazism, with its attendant, keen interests in occult symbols and High Modernist representational languages. TG’s visual gestures were also of a piece with an early band slogan: “Industrial music for industrial people.” Clearly “industrial people” can be read as a highly ironized coupling: the oppressed workers marching through the bowels of Metropolis were a sort of industrial people, reduced to the functionality of pure human capital. TG seemed to impose the same analysis on the middle-managers of Britain’s post-industrial economy, and their uncritical complicity in capital’s cruelties. But it’s also possible to argue that industrial people are industrious people; like TG, industrial people (middle managers, MPs) can get a lot of stuff done. They can produce things. They can make the trains run on time. And what sorts of cargo might those trains be carrying? What variety of conveyance delivered the naked “little Jewish girl” of “Zyklon B Zombies” to her fate?

To be clear: I don’t mean at all to suggest that TG was a fascist band. Like their punky contemporaries, TG traded in fascist iconography in a spirit of transgressive outrage, expressing their hot indignation with equally heated symbols. And other British post-punk acts flirted with fascist themes and images, ranging from ambiguous dalliance (Joy Division’s overt references to Yehiel De-Nur’s House of Dolls and to Rudolph Hess; and just what was the inspiration for Death in June’s band name?) to more assertive satire (see Current 93’s appealingly bonkers Swastikas for Noddy [LAYLAH Antirecords, 1988]). But a more problematic populist undercurrent in British punk persisted through the late 1970s. The dissolution of Sham 69—due in large part to the National Front’s attempts to appropriate the band’s working-class anger as a form of white pride—opened the way for a clutch of clueless, cynical or outright racist Oi! bands to attempt to impose themselves as the face of blue-collar English punk. And literally so: the Strength through Oi! compilation LP (Decca Records, 1981) featured notorious British Movement activist Nicky Crane on its cover. It didn’t help that the record’s title seemed to allude to the Nazis’ “Strength through Joy [Kraft durch Freude]” propaganda initiative.

Of course, it’s unfair to tar all Oi! bands with an indiscriminate brush. A few bands whose songs were opportunistically stuck onto Strength through Oi! by the dullards at Decca Records — Cock Sparrer and the excellent Infa Riot — tended leftward in their politics, and were anything but racists. But for a lot of the disaffected kids sucking down pints of Bass and singing in the Shed at Stamford Bridge, it wasn’t much of a leap from the punk pathetique of the Toy Dolls to Skrewdriver’s poisonous palaver.

In the States, a similarly complicated story can be recovered:

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In numerous ways, hardcore intensified punk’s confrontational qualities, musically and aesthetically. The New York hardcore scene made a fetish of its inherent violence, which complemented the music’s sharpened impact. So it’s hard to know precisely what to make of the photo on the cover of Victim in Pain (Rat Cage Records, 1984). If inflicting violence was an essential element of belonging in the NYHC scene, with whom to identify: the Nazi with the pistol, or the abject Ukrainian Jewish man, on his knees and about to tumble into the mass grave?

Agnostic Front seemed to provide a measure of clarity on the record, which included the song “Fascist Attitudes.” The lyric uses “fascist” as a condemnatory term. But the behaviors the song engages as evidence of fascism are intra-scene acts of violence: “Why should you go around bashing one another? […] / Learning how to respect each other is a must / So why start a war of anger, danger among us?” That’s a rhetoric familiar to anyone who participated in early-1980s hardcore; calls for scene unity were ubiquitous, and the theme is obsessively addressed on Victim in Pain. But the signs of inclusivity most visibly celebrated on the NYHC records and show flyers of the period were a skinhead’s white, shaven pate; black leather, steel-toe boots; and heavily muscled biceps. Those signifiers clearly link to the awful cover image of Strength through Oi! The forms of identity recognized and concretized in the songs’ first-person inclusive pronouns have a clear referent.

Agnostic Front wasn’t the only NYHC band to refer to and engage World War Two-period fascism. Queens natives Dave Rubenstein and Paul Bakija met at Forest Hills High School—the same school at which John Cummings (Johnny) befriended Thomas Erdelyi (Tommy), laying the groundwork for the formation of the Ramones. Rubenstein and Bakija also took stage names (Dave Insurgent and Paul Cripple) and formed Reagan Youth. But unlike the Ramones, there was nothing tentative or ambivalent about Reagan Youth’s politics. Rubenstein’s parents, after all, were Holocaust survivors. The band’s name riffed on “Hitler Youth,” but specifically did so to draw associations between Reagan and Hitler, between American conservatism’s 1980s resurgence and the Nazi’s hateful, genocidal agenda. Songs like “New Aryans” and “I Hate Hate” accommodated no uncertainties.

Still, it’s interesting that Victim in Pain and Reagan Youth’s Youth Anthems for the New Order (R Radical Records, 1984) were released only months apart, by bands in the same scene, sometimes sharing bills at CBGBs’ famous matinees of the period. And while Reagan Youth toured with Dead Kennedys, it’s Agnostic Front’s “Fascist Attitudes” that’s closer in content to the most famous punk rock putdown of Nazis.

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It’s odd what comes back around: Martin Hannett, whom Biafra playfully chides at the track’s very beginning, produced much of Joy Division’s music, moving the band away from its brittle early sound to the fulsome atmospheres of the Factory records, and to a wider listenership. “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” similarly addresses a formerly obscure, tight scene opening to a greater array of participants, some of whom were attracted solely to hardcore’s reputation for violence. Like “Fascist Attitudes,” the Dead Kennedys’ song itemizes fighting at shows as its chief complaint, and as a principal marker for “Nazi” behavior. Biafra’s lyric eventually gets around to somewhat more focused ideological critique: “You still think swastikas look cool / The real Nazis run your schools / They’re coaches, businessmen, and cops / In a real fourth Reich, you’ll be the first to go.” The kiss-off to punk’s vapid romance of the swastika (it “looks cool”) complements the speculative treatment of a “real fourth Reich.” Both operate at the level of abstraction. The casual, superficial relation to the symbol’s aesthetic assumes a sort of safety from the real, material consequences of its application. And the emergence of a fascist political regime is dangled as a possible future event. That speculative futurity undoes the “real” in “real Nazis.” The threat is ultimately a metaphorical construct. The Nazis are metaphorical “Nazis.”

Still, it’s the song’s chorus that resonates most powerfully. So much so that the song has found its way into other artworks.

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Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room (2015) is frequently identified as a horror film on streaming services. We could split hairs over that genre marker. The film gets quite graphically bloody, but there’s no psychotic slasher killer, no supernatural force at work. And cinematically, the film is a lot more interested in anxiety and dramatic tension than it is in inspiring revulsion or disgust. It terrifies, more than it horrifies. What’s especially compelling about the film (aside from Imogen Poots’ excellent performance, and Patrick Stewart’s menacing turn as charismatic fascist Darcy Banks) is its interest in embedding the viewer in a social context in which the Nazis are a lot less metaphorical, a lot more real. In Green Room, the kids in the punk band the Ain’t Rights are warned about the club they have agreed to play: “It’s mostly boots and braces down there.” And they understand the terms. What they can’t quite imagine is a room — a scene, a political Real — in which fascism is dominant. Their recognition of the stakes of the Real comes too late. The violence is already in motion. In that world, the Dead Kennedys song provides a nice slogan, but symbolic action alone is entirely inadequate.

OK, sure, Green Room is a fiction. Its violence is necessarily aestheticized, distorted and hyperbolized. But perhaps the film’s most urgent source of horror can be located in its plausible connections to the social realities of our material, contemporary conjuncture. You don’t have to dig very deep into the Web to find thousands of records made by white nationalist and neo-fascist-allied bands, many, many of which deploy stylistic chops identified with punk rock and hardcore. You can listen. You can buy. (And yeah, I’m not going to link to any of that miserable shit, because fuck them. If you do your own digging to see what’s what, be careful. It’s scary and upsetting in there.) It feels endless. And the virulent sentiments expressed on those records are echoed in institutional politics in the US and elsewhere: Steve King (and now Marjorie Taylor Greene, effectively angling for her seat in Congress), Nigel Farage, Alternative für Deutschland, elected leadership in Poland and Hungary. Explicit white supremacist music also has somewhat more carefully coded counterparts in much more visible media (the nightly monologuing on Fox News) and in very well-positioned, prominent policy makers (Stephen Miller, who’s on the record touting “great replacement” theory and is a big fan of The Camp of the Saints). It’s a complex, ideologically coherent network, working industriously to impose and install its hateful vision as the dominant political Real.

Sometimes it feels as if no progress at all has been made. Maybe we’re moving toward the reactionaries. Contrast Skokie in the late 1970s with Charlottesville in 2017. And now if the Neo-Nazis have licenses for their long guns, they can strut through American streets wearing them in the name of “law and order.” It’s even more disturbing that a subculture that wants to clothe itself in “revolution” and “radicalism” is so tightly in league with institutional politics. Say what you will about Siouxsie’s Nazi-fashion antics, no one suspected that her prancing echoed political activity, policy-making or messaging in Westminster.

So what’s a punk to do? It’s certain that a vigorously free society needs to preserve spaces in which unpopular speech can be uttered and exchanged. Punk should pride itself on defending those spaces. But speech that operates in conjunction with an ascendant political power and ideological agenda doesn’t need defense or energetic attempts to preserve its right to existence. In October of 2020, that speech (in this case, speeches being written by Miller, texts by folks who have spent time in Tucker Carlson’s writer’s room and songs by white supremacist hardcore bands) has become synonymous with political right itself.

So now more than ever, it’s important to be active in the public square, to stand up to the fascists and to say it, often and out loud:

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Jonathan Shaw

#dusted magazine #punk'd history #jonathan shaw #punk rock #siouxsie and the banshees #throbbing gristle #agnostic front #dead kennedys #green room #mdc

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bellonathedragonborn · 3 years

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Even though I’m debating if I should continue my Fable4 fanfiction I have decided to make some Artbreeders of my Fable fanfic OCs. Here is the first one:

Name: Vyrance Alfheart.

Other Names: V, Vyra (preferred name), Vivi, Princes Vyra, Princess Vyrance, Lady of Winter, Thane of Whitevale, Hero of Samarkand, Empress of Samarkand, the Pale Lady, Princess of Albion, Princess of Bowerstone.

Race/Nationality: Albionite a Quarter Auroran.

Short Bio: Vyra is the granddaughter of the Hero of Brightwall Mathew Alfheart and Lady Laylah Alfheart of Aurora. She is the daughter of King Harold and Queen Pema. She is the love interest of Reaver and is often seen spending time with him.

When her father died in a training accident Vyra wasn’t old enough to take the throne yet so her mother Pema ruled as the Queen Dowager. Even after Vyra turned eighteen she still refused to take the throne much to the courts dismay. In her spare time she would train with Levvy Finn (the son of Ben and Page) in the matters of combat.

She noticed she couldn’t perform any Will abilities outside of frost magic. She found it strange and spent her spare time trying to find books about her odd condition. She found none.

Since she’s the last of the Archon Heroes (the only ones who can master all three Heroic attributes) she was often kept sheltered away from the world in order to protect her. Until Gabriel ventured into the castle in hopes of her joining him to save her grandfather.

Weapons: She mainly uses frost magic but also likes using a master mace and the Red Dragon. After becoming Empress of Samarkand she can be seen wielding a spear.

(For more check out the hashtag #fable4thefinalstep)

#fable4thefinalstep #fable4 #fable #fable games #fable game #hero #artbreeder #character sheet #thane of Whitevale #hero of Samarkand #OC Vyra Alfheart

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gifsbysimplysonia · 4 years

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50 Questions

Got tagged by @dirtychocolatechai , thanks for thinking of me!

As per usual, if anyone is bored and wants to answer these, feel free to say I tagged you!

1. What is the colour of your hairbrush? Purple

2. Name a food you never ever eat. Menudo

3. Are you typically too warm or too cold? Too cold, but then like, keep in mind I will wrap myself up like a tamale but put a fan on me when I then inevitably get hot. Cuz I’m an a$$.

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Programming Tumblr posts

5. What is your favourite candy bar? This honestly changes day to day. I will always love a Kit Kat, Snickers, or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

6. Have you ever been to a professional sports game? Yes. When I was in 3rd grade, I was obsessed with the Chicago Bulls, so I got to go to a game at the old Chicago Stadium to see them. It was a total blow out but it was so fun to just be there.

7. What is the last thing you said out loud? Do these kids realize they are JUST kids???

8. What is your favourite ice cream? There’s a local ice cream place called Shirl’s that has THE BEST chocolate ice cream.

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? Homemade peach smoothie/shake.

10. Do you like your wallet? I wish it was more secure. It has a slot for my ID in the front, a few slots for cards, and then just one big open pocket with no way to close it so all the cards I jam in there will topple out if it gets turned upside down.

11. What was the last thing you ate? Dinner was 2 chicken flautas, Mexican rice and refried beans but then I had a few Jewel Chocolate Chip cookies after that.

12. Did you buy any new clothes last weekend? No.

13. The last sporting event you watched? NXT

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? I am down for straight up movie popcorn, but if it HAS to be flavored, Jays Oke Doke Cheese popcorn is the only way to go

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? My mother.

16. Ever go camping? Never. Did Outdoor Ed in 5th grade but we weren’t outside, we had a cabin.

17. Do you take vitamins? Yes, daily.

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? No. My parents were extremely devout Southern Baptists when I was young so Sunday School and Church were definitely a Sunday routine. Then my mom got hurt and we needed help and nobody from the church could be bothered. That ended any relationship with the church that existed but my parents are still extremely spiritual people who have a very strong faith I envy and admire.

19. Do you have a tan? No. I’m the lightest person in my family.

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? Again, depends on the day, although I RARELY am a person who wants pizza. I have to be in the mood for it, and if I am, then I’m gonna want it over anything. Otherwise, sweet n sour chicken is probably gonna win out.

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? If I’m out of my house, I have a reusable straw I take with me cuz paper straws are good for nothing. If I’m in the house, I prefer soda in a steel mug (designed to keep things colder long) with ice.

22. What color socks do you usually wear? I absolutely LIVE in socks so I have TONS and honestly, the crazier looking the better, so I have tons of patterns and not solid colors.

23. Do you ever drive above the speed limit? No.

24. What terrifies you? Losing my family & dying alone.

25. Look to your left, what do you see? The TV in the living room.

26. What chore do you hate most? Cleaning the bathroom

27. What do you think of when you hear an Australian accent? About whether or not it’s actually Australian or might it be Kiwi? Also, Australian drag queen Courtney Act, whose name kind of depends on the Australian accent to work 100%.

28. What’s your favorite soda? Coke Zero and Diet Dr. Pepper

29. Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive? If you mean fast food, drive thru for sure, but if it’s “sit down fast food” like a Red Robin, I have no problem going inside.

30. What is your favourite number? 10

31. Who’s the last person you talked to? My brother.

32. Favourite cut of beef? Fillet mignon which I have maybe once every 5 years.

33. Last song you listened to? All Roads Lead Home (Hobbs and Shaw Remix feat. Token) from the Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw soundtrack

34. Last book you read? Motorcycle Daddy by Laylah Roberts

35. Favourite day of the week? I like Wednesdays cuz there’s good wrestling on but I also like Saturdays cuz I can chill and know I don’t have anything to do the next day (most of the time)

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards? No

37. How do you like your coffee? Invisible/non existant lol I’m not a coffee drinker

38. Favourite pair of shoes? I have a pair of black boots that zip up on the inside with a short like 1/1.5 inch heel that make me feel cute but they are CRAP for walking in

39. The time you normally get up? Because my curtains are fairly sheer, the sun is up now between 6 and 6:30 am so I tend to come AWAKE at that time but then I’ll put on some eye protector thingies and try to sleep in a little more; usually doesn’t work :P

40. What do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets? Sunset

41. How many blankets on your bed? 2

42. Describe your kitchen plates. They are creme colored, ceramic, with designs around the edges

43. Describe your kitchen at the moment? A mess

44. Do you have a favourite alcoholic drink? Tequila Sunrise always treats me right, but anything that tastes fruity and I can’t taste the alcohol in? I’m good to go.

45. Do you play cards? No

46. What colour is your car? Charlie is Champagne

47. Can you change a tire? No and I wanna learn

48. Your favourite state? IL

49. Favourite job you’ve had? None of the jobs I’ve had would be my fave, but the one I have now that affords me the opportunity to work from home is convenient so I consider myself blessed and favored. My IDEAL job would be managing social media or websites for someone who needed that

50. How did you get your biggest scar? I ripped out my eyebrow piercing because I couldn’t figure out how to unscrew the end to remove it correctly *headdesk*

#get to know me #personal

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importantdeerpizza · 8 months

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Prayer To Lilith For Protection/Power:

“The divine light of my dark mother, Lilith, surounds me.

The unconditional love of the Goddess Lilith, whom I worship above all, enfolds me.

The power of Lilith protects my family, those who I love and also myself.

The presence of Lilith, Queen of Darkness, Queen of Hell, watches over me.

The wise mind of Lilith, the first High Priestess of Satan, guides me.

The life of Lilith freely flows through me.

The laws of Lilith direct me.

The power of Lilith, Layil, Ardat-lili, Laylah, abides within me.

The joy and freedom of Lilith, the rebellious first wife of Adam, uplifts me.

The mighty strength of Lilith renews me.

The beauty of Lilith, the seducer of fools and the destroyer of the pious, inspires me.

Where ever I am, Lilith is! We are one! he the great Goddess Lilith is me, I am the great Goddess Lilith. So be it”

#lilith #occult #magick #demonolatry

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rouxsystem · 5 years

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Side blogs

Decided to post up all our side blogs in case any of y’all are interested

@rouxsystem2 - just a place to have more queue space

@for-the-gds - Witchy stuff blog

@whomsdividend - MInecraft stuff

@someinspirobotquotes - Self-explanatory

@biancakittycat - Bianca’s blog

@learnallthethethings - Skye’s blog

@glitchhdotexe - Glitch’s blog

@foresttfae - Brooke’s blog

@aphroditethealter - Aphrodite’s blog

@amberaltairbrown - Amber’s blog

@purplehairclips - Laylah’s blog

@sevvyevy - Sevvy’s blog

@sylviaaltair - Sylvia’s blog

@selenabloodright - Selena’s blog (warning: lot of triggering stuff)

@abby-babby - Abby’s blog

@luna-amile - Luna’s blog

@bluejay-jay - Jay’s blog

@cherrybombfeli - Felicity’s blog

@whydopeoplelikemyaccent - Odessa’s blog

@cicicutiepie - CiCi’s blog

@look-to-the-skies - Jasmine’s blog

@queen-of-the-inner-world - Avalon’s blog

@theatrekidaz - Azura’s blog

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artandfeminism · 5 years

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2019 WIKIPEDIA EDIT-A-THON SATURDAY, MARCH 2 AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART WITH HUNDREDS OF EVENTS INTERNATIONALLY THROUGHOUT THE MONTH OF MARCH

FEBRUARY 14, 2019 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS CONTACT: MOLLY KURZIUS, [email protected]

New York City -- Art+Feminism’s sixth-annual Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, an all-day event designed to generate coverage of gender, feminism, and the arts on Wikipedia, will take place at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Education and Research Building, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 4 West 54 Street, on Saturday, March 2, 2019 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The much-anticipated event features panel discussions, workshops, tutorials for the beginner Wikipedian, ongoing editing support, reference materials, childcare, and refreshments. People of all gender identities and expressions are encouraged to attend.

“This year we focused on growth, both in people and in focus,” said Art+Feminism lead co-organizers Siân Evans, Jacqueline Mabey, McKensie Mack, Michael Mandiberg, and Melissa Tamani Becerra. “We welcomed Melissa Tamani Becerra as lead co-organizer, we now boast thirteen of Art+Feminism regional organizers from Accra to Taiwan, and we’ve brought on Community and Communication Fellows with the goal of training the next generation of activists in the arts. And, in focusing our 2019 campaign on editing about non-binary topics, we made public our personal commitment to an expansive understanding of gender. This way, we can better represent the gender identities of Art+Feminism organizers and participants."

The Edit-a-thon at The Museum of Modern Art will feature a series of programs throughout the day. This year’s event kicks off with a conversation exploring visibility and vulnerability, featuring writer and archivist Che Gossett; performance artist, writer, and educator Alok Vaid-Menon; and Simone Browne, an Associate Professor in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. The discussion is moderated by Danielle A. Jackson, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art.

The Edit-a-thon will also feature Gallery Sessions on feminist art; a discussion of the forward-thinking teaching artists who shaped the development of the Department of Education via materials in the library archives; a workshop on creating boundaries to combat implicit and explicit bias; and a teach-in on deleting and defending articles on Wikipedia. With the intention of making women artists and photographers of the African Diaspora more visible, The Black Lunch Table hosts their Wikimedia Photo Booth. Professional photographers Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Andrea Cauthen, and Adama Delphine Fawundu will be on hand taking portraits for upload to Wikimedia Commons. Communal editing tables will be hosted by AfroCROWD, an organization that increases awareness of free culture movements among people of African descent, and POWarts, which champions the professional lives of women in the art world. Across the street, New York Public Library’s 53rd Street Branch will host Drag Queen Story Hour and offer a zine-making workshop.

In addition to the Edit-a-thon at The Museum of Modern Art, New York City will play host to events at a wide range of institutions, including The Jewish Museum (March 3); Kickstarter (March 3); International Center of Photography (March 9); Interference Archive (March 10); Bard Graduate Center (March 16); Columbia University (March 16); Pratt Institute (March 19); The School of Visual Arts Library (March 21); Hauser & Wirth (March 27). Internationally, edit-a-thons will take place during the month of March at hundreds of institutions such as Impact Hub, Accra; Kunstmuseum Basel; The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus; Buni Innovation Hub, Dar es Salaam; Pand P, Eindhoven; Università degli studi di Salerno, Fisciano; MAMCO, Geneva; Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; Cornell University, Ithaca; Musée d’art de Joliette; ICA, Los Angeles; Initiative for Indigenous Futures, Montreal; University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Mills College Art Museum, Oakland; Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris; Le Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City; University of Nevada, Reno; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago; Womany Wonderland, Taipei City; Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Winston-Salem State University; Material Zürich; and online in a month-long Edit-a-thon led by Women in Red. An updating list of venues can be found on the Art+Feminism’s website: http://www.artandfeminism.org/find-an-event/

On the eve of the March Edit-a-thons, Art+Feminism announced the release of new artworks from Wendy Red Star and Tuesday Smillie, created under the auspices of the Call to Action art commissions program. Established in 2017, artists are invited to create Creative Commons licensed works to be hosted on Wikimedia Commons; Divya Mehra’s Dangerous Women (Blaze of Glory) was the inaugural commission. Ashkaamne (matrilineal inheritance) (2019) by Wendy Red Star depicts the artist and her daughter, Beatrice Red Star Fletcher, reclining in matching striped shirts and blankets, with the words, “Apsáalooke feminist,” repeated in the background. Apsáalooke inheritance is based on matrilineal descent, tracing affiliation along with the mother-to-daughter line; the image represents a lineage, female empowerment, and the next generation. Rage/Sorrow (2018) by Tuesday Smillie is an animated GIF. The text “RAGE” appears large, filling the square format from left to right. “RAGE” is quickly obscured by a cascade of rectangles and the text, “SORROW,” repeated in a smaller font. Rage/Sorrow, a born-digital work, suggests the role of technology and the internet in nurturing and exacerbating pre-existing social divisions. The endless loop of the GIF mimics a cycle of anger and anguish produced by the constant stream of horrifying news.

Founded in 2014 by Siân Evans, Jacqueline Mabey, Michael Mandiberg and Laurel Ptak, Art+Feminism is a do-it-yourself campaign to improve coverage of gender, feminism, and the arts on Wikipedia. Wikipedia’s gender trouble is well-documented; in a 2011 survey, the Wikimedia Foundation found that less than 10% of its contributors identify as women. This lack of participation has led to significant gaps in content on the world’s most popular online research tool. Since 2014, over 10,000 people at more than 800 events around the world have participated in our edit-a-thons, resulting in the creation and improvement of more than 33,000 articles on Wikipedia.

The 2019 Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at The Museum of Modern Art is organized by Art+Feminism, led by Siân Evans, Jacqueline Mabey, McKensie Mack, Michael Mandiberg, and Melissa Tamani Becerra, in collaboration with AfroCROWD, Black Lunch Table, Women in Red, the Professional Organization for Women in the Arts (POWarts) and The Museum of Modern Art, New York and with support from Qubit New Music, Inc. and Wikimedia NYC.

Art+Feminism’s Regional Ambassadors are Mohammed Sadat Abdulai, Accra; Marta Delatte, Barcelona; Daniela Brugger, Basel; Walaa Abdel Manaem, Cairo; Medhavi Gandhi, Chandigarh; Amanda Meeks, Flagstaff; Dominique Eliane, Ivory Coast; Stacey Allan, Los Angeles; Amber Berson, Montreal; Linden How, Portland; Taryn Tomasello, Portland; Juliana Monteiro, São Paulo and Jessie Mi, Taiwan. The 2019 Fellows are Keon Dillon and Nina Yeboah.

The Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at The Museum of Modern Art is supported by The Modern Women’s Fund.

The Art + Feminism initiative is made possible by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Education at MoMA is made possible by a partnership with Volkswagen of America.

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