Lin-Manuel Miranda Talks Free Speech at Hamilton College

Some 5,000 people were at Hamilton College Monday evening for the featured guest speaker, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the original star and creator of the Tony award winning musical Hamilton. The event was part of the college's next "Great Names" speaker. 

Miranda spoke to students and members of the public on Monday night, September 29th, at the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House in Clinton

Hamilton College welcomed the creator of the Broadway show "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda, Monday evening in the college’s field house. More than 5,000 community members, employees, and students came to hear the creator of the Tony award-winning star chat with Hamilton alumnus, Eric Kuhn, a Broadway producer and also a Tony award-winner. Miranda was a guest in the college's Sacerdote Great Names Series that has brought political leaders, sports figures, entertainers, and others to the campus including, most recently, Venus Williams, Tina Fey, Hillary Clinton, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, among others.

Miranda spoke to the crowd about a wide variety of topics including the current state oil politics and free speech, his inspirations for the musical; how his father wanted him to pursue a law, rather than an arts degree; what he learned from his mentor, Stephen Sondheim; and his own college experiences.

Miranda said he's worried about free speech in the United States after the incident in which television stations were pressured by the federal government to cancel Jimmy Kimmel of ABC's late night show The Jimmy Kimmel Show. Miranda said he was pleased that so many people voiced their opinion against the movie, forcing Disney-ABC to reinstate the show last week. Sinclair and Nexstar television stations quickly followed suit and ended their boycott of the show.

An award-winning songwriter, actor, director and producer, Miranda began writing the song-and-rap Broadway smash in 2008 after reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton. The writing and development process continued until the musical’s premiere in 2015. Hamilton received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and earned a record-breaking 16 Tony nominations, of which it won 11, including two for Miranda for Book and Score of a Musical.

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The event was free and open to the public, but tickets were required with students getting first dibs.

The original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton won the 2016 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. Both Miranda and Hamilton won the 2016 Drama League Awards for Distinguished Performance and Outstanding Production of a Musical, respectively.

Material from the show was previewed at the White House during its first-ever Evening of Poetry & Spoken Word in 2009, Lincoln Center Theater’s 2012 American Songbook Series, and New York Stage and Film’s 2013 Powerhouse Theater Season at Vassar College. Miranda performed became one of the musical’s numbers on the college’s campus in 2012 to kick off Hamilton’s Bicentennial celebration.

Miranda received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 2002. He lives with his family in New York.