Julliard

The Julliard are one of the many gangs in Night City.

Details
The Julliard is a gang-collective for street performers in Night City.

As you can guess, it's tough to be a street performer in 2020. The boosters used to just steal your money. Now they steal your instruments and a small family moves into your cello case. Many of the urban poor resent irrelevant artsy types anyway, and there's always a premium on panhandling room on the Street.

It's also hard to protect yourself while juggling.

Thus, the Julliard was formed. This gang takes the motto "Kill a mime, go to jail" seriously. Performers travel in armed pairs, while weighted juggling clubs and machineguns in viola cases are not uncommon. Molest a street performer, and you can count on a broken leg from a surprise attack later that evening. Even if you are a Wild Thing.

Fifteen percent of the take (from street performances) goes to the group. Gang elders are in charge of assigning individual turfs during a weekly signup meeting (usually on the weekend). If you're new in town and are selected to join the gang (following an audition)you'll sign upforyour performance spots last until you rise in the society.

The Julliard is primarily a self-protection organization, but they defend the rest of the City from other street performers as well. Get caught playing the Julliards' town without permission, and you may become a guitarist with seven fingers. These people don't fool around. On the other hand, the Julliard doesn't pick on the D.J.'s because they are so bad.

The Julliard's turf, in an area between the upper-class neighborhoods and the Corporate Center, has been chosen for maximum visibility to people most likely to give a street performer a break. This choice turf is held against all other gangs both for the Julliard's safety, and to create a protected neighborhood for the foot traffic most likely to be their audience.

The Julliard's most plum assignments are on the steps of the various perfor-mance halls throughout the City. The Bodakan, unfortunately, has very in-tolerant security and at the other venues there is always the chance of run-ins with Vampyres and Bozos on big show nights.

Gang central for the Juilliard is in a couple of cheap apartments over the International Cafe. It's affordable and close to the affluent Parkside Residen-tial Block and the Consular Block, where elegant corps are likely to notice a young genius with a violin. Last year a member of the Julliard who special-ized in street corner Kabuki was taken back to Japan by a visitor staying at the Kuroshita Hotel. With a lot of work, anybody can get lucky.