Essay On Lin Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda summed up his feelings about art in an interview: "The ultimate way art can be political is that I think it engenders empathy which is the thing politicians can't seem to do" (Watson). Throughout history, many forms of art have created new ideas in our society and will continue to challenge new ways of thinking and how we communicate with one another. In the last fifteen years, artist Lin-Manuel Miranda has written two Broadway Musicals that have had a major impact on how we historically view our country. By writing stories based on the traditional ideas of the "American Dream" and contemporizing the history of our nation's birth, he has captivated a broad and diverse audience. Lin-Manuel's genius, coupled with his passion for the arts, plays an integral role on how we should view our nation's history, to uphold American values for all of us, not just some of us.
Lin-Manuel Miranda was born January 16, 1980, to Puerto Rican parents in the Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, New York. He grew up as a cultural outsider with a deep understanding of his

background, something he took an immense amount of pride in. His father came to America with a full-ride scholarship to attend New York University to study law, where he met his wife, Luz, who went on to become a clinical psychologist.
From early childhood, Lin-Manuel and his sister were surrounded by music as their parents had a strong love for Broadway Musicals. Every year he went to a Broadway production with his family, and the first musical he ever saw at the age of seven, was "Les Miserables." His parents purchased the album from the musical and his mom would play the song "Bring Him Home" on a loop, and she cried each and every time. This had a profound effect on Lin-Manuel, learning at an early age, the effects of music on our emotions. His family's passion for these musicals undoubtedly influenced him, along with the music of his Latin culture and of his own generation, hip-hop and rap. As a young boy, his talents began to surface, and this was evident through numerous home videos showing him singing, dancing and acting.
When Lin-Manuel was five years old he took a battery of aptitude tests that gained him admittance to Hunter College Elementary and then Hunter College High School, where he received and what he considers "A great free public school education K-12, where I learned Matisse and Jackson Pollock in kindergarten" (Brecher, Polley, and Lilley). With no formal musical training, Hunter College Elementary School was the place that started his musical career. Lin-Manuel thrived as a result of this training coupled with his early exposure to musical theatre. For the school's big sixth grade performance, he had the freedom to write his own musical and star in six others. From these early experiences, he knew that he wanted to be an artist and he carried this desire into high school where he participated in all of the plays, musicals, a student run theatre group and lead in director for the high school musical Westside Story.
In 1998, Lin-Manuel graduated high school and began college at Wesleyan University in Connecticut where he majored in theatre studies. In 1999, during his sophomore year, he began the first draft of his first musical. He was inspired to write his musical after watching Rent, a modern day musical about a group of everyday individuals struggling to live in New York City while having to deal with relationships, health and money issues. This musical made the "contemporary sound" relevant, and he thought to himself "oh, you can write a musical that's about you, about your life" (PBS).
The personal story of Lin-Manuel's own family and coming to America became the first musical he wrote and it was entitled "In the Heights." For him, it was not about making a hit; it was strictly about getting his story out. The story he wanted to convey was the genuine side of Latino culture, rooted in strong family values and close neighborhood relationships. He was determined to challenge the stereotypes from the Latin musicals of the past "Can we have a Latino Musical where we were not knife wielding murderers from the 1950s" (Keeper of the Flame)?
Lin-Manuel's story resonated to many people, especially those who had parents that came here from another country. Lin-Manuel takes great pride in his culture; but for some, especially first generation children, there is a constant struggle when trying to figure out who they are and what they represent. In an interview with Lin-Manuel regarding "In the Heights" - "There is a whole first generation of immigrants - you grow up with our parents tradition, you go to school with a completely different set of traditions and you try to find yourself within the margins" (PBS). Lin-Manuel's story revolved around straddling two completely different worlds; living in an immigrant neighborhood, but commuting to a school located in one of the richest neighborhoods in the country; speaking Spanish at home and English at school; being called Lin-Manuel at home and Lin at school. "I was a little of myself in both places and it wasn't until I grew up when I started bringing all of myself into the room" (Keeper of the Flame).
"In the Heights" embodies all of these feelings and ideas and creates a beautiful, relatable story that includes this struggle of supporting your family, the pressure to succeed and finding where you belong in the fabric of American society. Not only is the story relatable to all kinds of people, it translates onto the stage as it is vibrant, lively and has the ability to engage a large audience with hip-hop and Latin style music and dancing.
While on his first vacation from "In the Heights" in 2008, Miranda picked up the book entitled "Alexander Hamilton" by author Ron Chernow.

The book was the biography about one of our founding fathers and our first Treasury-Secretary. While reading the 800-page book, Manuel stated: "Hip-hop songs started rising off the page" (PBS). Alexander Hamilton was born in the Caribbean and was raised in a broken family surrounded by slavery. His father left him, his mother passed away and there was a devastating hurricane on his home island of St. Croix. Alexander Hamilton put pen to paper and wrote a poem and as a result of his writing, won a scholarship and found his way to America. Lin-Manuel describes him as "An immigrant and an outsider who writes his way in" (Keeper of the Flame). When Lin-Manuel read that Hamilton wrote a poem to get off the

island:
It was the most hip-hop thing I have ever heard... And it was something beautiful being created out of the ashes of something old - and that's what Hamilton did when he wrote that poem - and then he wrote about his struggles and got out on the strength of his writing - and that is the trajectory of so many of the hip hop artists that I respect...the ability to be a reporter on the front lines of where you grow up and your struggle (Keeper of the Flame).
Lin-Manuel deeply related to this story as his family, like many others, came to America to get a better education and to live a better life. Inspired by Hamilton's story, he planned to write an album of songs based on the man on our ten-dollar bill.
In 2009, The White House asked Lin-Manuel to perform something from "In the Heights" or anything else regarding the "American Experience" at an event of music, poetry and spoken word. Lin-Manuel knew that this was the perfect place to introduce his rap song on Alexander Hamilton:
I'm thrilled the white house called me tonight, because I'm actually working on a hip-hop album, it's a concept album about the life of someone who embodies hip-hop, Treasury-Secretary Alexander Hamilton. You laugh, but it's true, he was born a penniless orphan in St. Croix of illegitimate birth, became George Washington's right hand man, became Treasury-Secretary, caught beef with every other founding father, and all on the strength of his writing and I think he embodies the words ability to make a difference (The White House).
Though the original plan was to create a series of songs, Lin-Manuel found himself writing a hip-hop musical about our founding fathers, focusing on Alexander Hamilton. After writing the first song, he spent an entire year writing the second song of the show called "My Shot." After six years of writing and collaborating with the author, Ron Chernow, Lin-Manuel finished Hamilton. In January 2015, the musical went to Broadway and went on to be one of the most popular musicals of all time.
Lin-Manuel's Hamilton successfully tells the story of the significance of our founding father. Although it is a story you can find in just about any historical book. Lin-Manuel was able to convey the story to his audience using hip-hop music and dance, modern language, and most importantly a multi-racial cast. By doing so, he drove home the point that Americans, regardless of your ethnicity, were portraying Americans. The cast was a reflection of our country as a whole, not just specific ethnic group. Lin-Manuel also gave women of the story very strong roles and voices, contrary to what our history and our society, especially of late, allows. One of the lead female characters, Angelica Schuyler Church rapped, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal - And when I meet Thomas Jefferson...I'm 'a compel him to include women in the sequel" (Shulman)! Hamilton is a perfect mix of history and modern art and through it Lin-Manuel gave new life to the birth of our nation. Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of New York's Public Theater, draws a comparison with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Shakespeare: "Lin in Hamilton is doing what Shakespeare did with his history plays...He is bringing out what is noble about the common tongue..." (PBS). In Lin-Manuel's musicals he uses the contemporary language of hip-hop and rap.
In both of his musicals, In the Heights and Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda gave his audience an insight on his views concerning our American society. He is an outspoken critique on racism, misogyny, and anti-immigration matters that are currently facing our nation. On Friday, November 18th, 2016, after the performance of Hamilton, the cast delivered a message written by Lin-Manuel to Vice President Elect, Mike Pence who was in the audience:

We, sir, are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us — our planet, our children, our parents — or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us (PBS).
With the current state of our nation, he is the much-needed voice of reason. Lin-Manuel Miranda has engendered empathy through his genius, something we need now more that ever before.