Judith Butler We The People Analysis

In “We the People,” Judith Butler (2016) writes, “To act in concert does not mean to act in conformity; it may be that people are moving or speaking in several different directions at once, even at cross-purposes” (p. 157). Butler’s statement was exemplified this weekend at “Tam-Tams” the weekly-festival that takes place every Sunday at Mount Royal Park beneath the monument of Sir George-Étienne Cartier.

The festival goers who participate in Tam-Tams move their body in every direction and there is no clear end-goal to such movement; rather, the act itself is the doing. Of course, no act is apolitical, and as I watched the predominantly white audience dance freely under the summer sun, it begged the question why it was the percussive drum circle, the sounds of which mirror the musical practices of many communities of colour, where the expressive and

The drummers themselves beat their instruments in unison, while they were not necessarily playing a specific piece - at least in the classical, Western sense - there are specific techniques being utilized which are anything but random. To contrast, the movement of the dancers invokes ideas of a frenetic nirvana, their bodily comportment alongside the drums which suggest a non-white or third-world “spirit” being reflected in the kinetic shapes made by the dancers. Of course, Tam-Tams in its sonic practice engages in its own assumptions. The formation suggests a “we” who is implicitly aware that their unity in this space normalizes what may be considered “odd” if done individually or elsewhere. Furthermore, the music is crucial with its fast-pace, in furthering the sonic and visual perception that something off-centre or inherently countercultural is occurring. Indeed, for the predominantly white Canadian participants, for whom drums may be more closely associated to