“Opportunity and Art” with Lin-Manuel Miranda
By Margaret Wilson
“That Lin-Manuel and his inventions.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda cites this frequent exclamation from his grandmother as the moment he knew he would be an artist. Always creating from a young age, the driving force to put his voice into the world has never left him.
Speaking to an energized Kamine Gymnasium on Lafayette College’s campus, the composer, lyricist, and original star of the Broadway show Hamilton proved that he knows how to engage a crowd. Miranda’s discussion with President Nicole Hurd was punctuated by cheers from the audience as he mentioned everything from funding for the arts to the power of seeing Puerto Rico represented on a global stage.
Miranda is the creator of two award-winning Broadway productions, amongst other works that span television, film, and more. Hamilton, which earned the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 11 Tony Awards, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, is a portrait of Alexander Hamilton and the American Revolutionary period, and features the Marquis de Lafayette as a pivotal character.
In the Heights, Miranda’s first musical, received four Tony Awards, a Grammy Award, and was adapted into a feature film released by Warner Bros. in 2021. As a composer, director, activist, and more, Miranda has cemented himself as one of the most impactful storytellers of a generation.
A liberal arts foundation
Taking the stage with President Hurd, Miranda jumpstarted the conversation with his experience at a liberal arts college.
“I think that you find your people in college,” Miranda said. “You find the people who are swimming in the same direction as you, who want to make their mark on the world in the same way you do.”
A graduate of Wesleyan College, Miranda recounted a visit to the campus before enrolling, where he sat in on a film class that ran late due to the spirited discussion.
“I said, ‘I want to be in a place where people are so excited about what they’re learning that class runs over and no one even blinks.’”
Miranda’s connections that he built during his college years are still going strong; today, Wesleyan classmates are part of his company, have built crucial links that led to future projects, and continue to influence his work.
“You’re going to find your fellow travelers in this life,” Miranda says of the college experience.
On creative mentors
Miranda’s first musical, In The Heights, was started in his college dorm room, and wasn’t the show that the audience would recognize today. It was the first time, he said, that his writing started pulling from his culture and experiences instead of from his influences, writers like Jonathan Larson and Stephen Sondheim.
“When you start writing, you should be chasing your heroes. And you will fall short of all of your heroes, and eventually, if you bring enough of yourself and your experiences to the room, you will eventually start to sound like yourself,” he said.
Later, when discussing his directorial debut for the movie version of Larson’s Tick, Tick…Boom!, Miranda shared how the original show solidified his aspiration to make musicals.
“[Tick, Tick…Boom!] asks you, ‘Do you want to spend your days doing something if recognition and success is not likely?’” Miranda said. “It was clarifying for me. I remember thinking ‘Yeah, I’m cool with that. Even if I am a substitute teacher the rest of my life with unproduced musicals in my closet, this is what I want to do with my life.’”
Sondheim, who delivered the Jones Visiting Lecture at Lafayette in 2011, was also an influential creative mentor for Miranda, encouraging him to continue writing Hamilton and providing notes on the process.
“It made my work infinitely better, and it made my life infinitely better,” Miranda said of the relationship.
Tackling Lafayette’s legacy
While the citizens of Easton have been venerating the Marquis for 200 years, many in the country didn’t know much about him until the Broadway premiere of Hamilton in 2015. While the musical focuses on the life of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, the role the Marquis de Lafayette played in bringing about victory in the Revolutionary War for America makes up a crucial part of the plot.
(From left to right) President Nicole Hurd, filmmaker Jaye Fenderson, and Daveed Diggs speak on stage in Colton Chapel during Diggs’ 2024 visit to campus.
Miranda knew that the Marquis was a fascinating character when writing the musical, and wanted to get the “coolest person he knows” to play him: Daveed Diggs. Miranda knew that Diggs, who visited Lafayette’s campus in 2018 and 2024, could take on the mantle of someone who gained success so quickly, finding a mentor in George Washington and helping win independence for America.
“Lafayette has a wanderlust for battle and for justice,” Miranda said. “It’s the other incredible immigrant story inside this narrative that this guy came from somewhere totally different, and now we have colleges named after him because of the mark he left. He’s a really fascinating character, ahead of the curve of all of the other characters [in Hamilton] when it comes to abolition and human rights.”
Becoming a storyteller
Miranda emphasized his biggest advice for anyone attempting to become a writer: “Rewriting is writing.”
“That inspiration that came to you, that you wrote down and are so proud of, can be better. That is the lightning, and your job is to convert that lightning into a great piece of work, and the rewriting is part of that. It almost never comes out the way the lightning hit the earth, the way the inspiration hit you.”
Miranda also touched on the process for his work with Disney, including writing the music for Moana while writing Hamilton, and bringing Latino stories to life in Encanto.
“When you allow other people to see themselves in spaces they haven’t seen themselves in before, that’s an act of love,” President Hurd said of Miranda’s work. “When people see that they belong to each other in these beautiful and profound ways, that’s an act of love.”