Opening address for the Hemispheric Institute's 9th Encuentro, held at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada, sought to explorethe multiple valences of the term MANIFEST! How are performances mobilized andsyncretized in civic, community, and cultural contexts to create manifold formsof political expression? How do public, theatrical events produce‘evidence’ that manifests ideas otherwise invisible, hidden, orunspeakable? What new manifestations, manifestos, festivals, and manifs emergevia our changing visions of political spaces, intellectual arenas, and theeveryday street? The 2014 Encuentro invited artists, activists, and scholars toengage with and investigate the aesthetic, social, and choreographic techniquesthat transform political ideas into collective images, through actions,embodied utterances, and ways of being. Such questions resonated in the hostcity of Montréal, where la manifestation has a rich and ongoinghistory.