At just 45, renowned playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda is already being celebrated with a prestigious lifetime achievement recognition. Miranda, known for his groundbreaking work “Hamilton,” will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This distinguished society, established 127 years ago, welcomes Miranda as one of 21 new inductees, joining an elite group comprising renowned individuals like Robert Caro, Jasper Johns, and Meredith Monk. The formal induction ceremony is scheduled for May at the academy’s beaux arts venue located in Upper Manhattan, a stone’s throw from the locales depicted in Miranda’s “In the Heights.” Previous inductees have included influential figures such as Willem De Kooning and Toni Morrison, both having played pivotal roles in influencing Miranda’s own career.
Miranda expressed his profound gratitude and humility upon joining this illustrious community, which boasts former members such as Stephen Sondheim, Richard Rodgers, and Oscar Hammerstein. He looks forward to contributing to and celebrating the arts in his home area of Washington Heights. The induction in May will feature a keynote Blashfield Address by novelist-playwright Caryl Phillips.
The Academy spans diverse fields like literature, music, art, and architecture, maintaining a dedicated membership of 300. New members are elected to fill the shoes of deceased ones, and there are also foreign and honorary members which include prominent figures like Meryl Streep, Martin Scorsese, J.M. Coetzee, and Bob Dylan. This year, new honorary members include Mexican conceptual artist Francis Alÿs, Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum, and activist-author Angela Davis. Mel Chin, a fellow artist and academy member, praised Davis’s revolutionary voice and intellectual contributions, highlighting her vital role in advocating for equality in today’s divided society.
Besides Miranda, this year’s line-up includes acclaimed authors such as Jesmyn Ward, Gish Jen, and Elizabeth Alexander, along with architect Ricardo Scofidio, and a spectrum of visual artists including installation artist Robert Grosvenor and sculptor Donna Dennis. An author of celebrated novels like “The Emperor’s Children” and “The Woman Upstairs,” Claire Messud, joins the academy, having previously won the Strauss Living Award in 2003 for literary excellence. She reminisced about the surreal experience of meeting admired writers and artists, many of whom have since passed, including Edward Said and Shirley Hazzard.
Other writers in the new cohort are New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik, novelist Chang-rae Lee, author-translator Daniel Mendelsohn, and author-playwright Darryl Pinckney. Visual artists welcomed alongside Grosvenor and Dennis are artist-curator Coco Fusco, multidisciplinary artist Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne name: Hock E Aye Vi), weaver-textile artist Sheila Hicks, conceptual artist Rashid Johnson, photographer An-My Lê, abstract painter Charline von Heyl, and installation artist Fred Wilson.
In the music realm, Miranda now joins the ranks alongside fellow classical composers-musicians Derek Bermel and Gabriela Lena Frank. Academy president Kwame Anthony Appiah expressed pride in the incoming class, emphasizing the excellence and diversity represented in their work.
