Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the concepts of play and ritual in the context of Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police protests in Madison, Wisconsin, in the summer of 2020.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the concepts of play and ritual in the context of Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police protests in Madison, Wisconsin, in the summer of 2020. Dr. Steiner uses reflexive autoethnographic methods and documentation through interviews and photography to explore her own experiences and the actions she witnessed while participating in a massive protest on the Capitol Square on May 30, 2020. She discusses how music, movement, and material culture came together to create a feeling of communitas among protesters as they enacted the rituals of revolutionary transformation on that day and in the days and weeks that followed in Downtown Madison. Dr. Steiner explores how protesters drew physical and metaphorical lines between themselves, police, and capitalist society as they engaged in a serious but playful struggle for life and transformation. As she sheds light on the power and significance of what happened in Madison and other cities across the United States during the summer of 2020, Dr. Steiner asks whether the serious play enacted in these movements and actions represents a completed ritual. If so, how have we been transformed? And if not (or not yet), what do we still need to do to complete the ritual or continue the play?