I begin with a few historical examples of collective solidarity in contexts of poverty that underlies what I call political emergence. In presenting these examples, I indicate an analysis of the relation of poverty and multitude, Armut und Menge. Having established this backdrop of historical examples, I go on to make some theoretical considerations on political emergence and the ways in which aesthetic figuration may help us understand it. The final part of my essay focuses on a major aesthetic work coming out of the 25 January Revolution in Egypt: Amira Hanafi’s A Dictionary of the Revolution, an unclassifiable artifact in which performance meets literature, art, computer visualization, and sociology. Taken together, the three parts hint of a more encompassing claim that I can only begin to pursue in this essay: aesthetic interpretation is indispensable for any proper understanding of political emancipation and democracy today.