"All Art is Political": Lin-Manuel Miranda on the Role of Artists in Tense Times

"All art is political. In tense, fractious times—like our current moment—all art is political. But even during those times when politics and the future of our country itself are not the source of constant worry and anxiety, art is still political."

In a recent article, playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda addressed the power and importance of stories in the age of President Donald Trump.

He continues, "Art lives in the world, and we exist in the world, and we cannot create honest work about the world in which we live without reflecting it. If the work tells the truth, it will live on."

Miranda writes,

Donald Trump came down the escalator to declare his presidential run, and in his first speech he demonized Mexicans: "They’re rapists; they’re bringing drugs; they’re not sending their best people." We young Latinos had thought of our parents and grandparents as the latest wave making its home in this country, and we thought that we would be the next group to make this place a better place, to prove once again that the American dream wasn’t just a figment of some propagandist’s imagination. And now we’re in a different age when, for some, considering an immigrant a human being is a radical political act.

Read here The Atlantic article.

Image: Dimitris Vetsikas / Pixabay