Everyone from the Average Joe, to the theater geek, knows about "Hamilton," the hit musical that keeps on hitting. It is a show focusing on the life and journey of Alexander Hamilton while managing to create a tie to our current nation using rap and Americans of our variant background. What some people forget is that the playwright, Lin-Manuel Miranda, also serves as our Alexander Hamilton when it opened. As Miranda leaves his role this summer we all should be both saddened by his departure of the ionic role he created and excited for what this innovator has next up his sleeves. What is quickly becoming apparent is that Miranda is a role model that aspires on the widest range. This is shown especially with his actions at the Tony Awards.
The 70th Tony Awards were bittersweet this year due to the tragic events of the Orlando shooting that took 49 lives and injured at least 50 individuals at the gay nightclub, Pulse. So when Miranda went up for his first Tony of the night in Best Score we were more than moved with his acceptance speech. Already with a ribbon of mourning and a rainbow flag pinned to his jacket, there was an expectancy of the winner addressing the events. Choosing to focus on the love for his wife and a reminder that love can overcome true tragedies, Miranda wrote a sonnet that truly moved. Lin-Manuel Miranda was choked up and close to tears toward the end of his speech when he said:
"We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger. We rise and fall and light from dying embers. Remembrances that hope and love live longer. And love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside."
If this isn't something that you've already become choked up about, then it only due to a lack of viewing. The entire speech was not only eloquently beautiful, but a true reminder that as a nation we must rise above the hate. That the right to love and be loved can't be destroyed by ignorance or hate. Even though Miranda continued to use sonnet after sonnet that he wrote to accept some of the 11 Tony Awards he received that night, this will be the one everyone will be talking about and sharing for the next couple of weeks, maybe longer. Most importantly, Miranda shows especially to those that are looking up to him or in a difficult place during these hard times of violence and hate that the proper response isn't hate or immediate aggression of words. But insight and an understanding in love and compassion that will one day overcome this behavior once and for all.
Links to the speech will be posted in the comments below.
