Jasmine Nicole

So if you’re a theater person, you’ve probably heard of the musical phenomenon by the name of Hamilton: An American Musical by Lin Manuel Miranda. If you haven’t, in a nutshell, it’s an amazing retelling of the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of the USA’s founding fathers, using rap, hip-hop, jazz, and blues, in the most spectacular way.

Now, this isn’t a review, but I must say if you have the chance to see it, go see it. It is UNBELIEVABLE! It came to my lovely city of Milwaukee and I had the privilege to see it twice within a week and I am currently still on a Hamilton high in this very moment as I type these words. I have gone down the rabbit hole of looking into the careers of the actors that were in the show, the company I saw and the original Broadway cast, following them all on social media, looking up anything and everything to do with Lin Manuel Miranda, and anything of the like. I saw another show written by Lin Manuel Miranda last year, In the Heights, but Hamilton took me over the edge.

I left the show, particularly the first one, with a full and heavy heart, a busy mind, and empty pockets. My heart was heavy but full with the intricate stories and the lives of the characters, my mind was busy with possibilities of trying to understand how someone could write something so damn genius, and my pockets were empty because I spent so much money on my ticket as I wanted to make sure I got a good ass seat and I was so close to the stage that I could see the spit spray from the actors as they sung/rap. It was spectacular.

I had never heard the story of Alexander Hamilton, as history was never my favorite subject, so I never knew how amazing of a man he was and the journey of his life as he fought for America and for legacy. He is the guy on the $10 bill, by the way. I will say this, if every history lesson I had could’ve been told as Miranda told Hamilton’s, history would have definitely been my favorite subject. I was inspired by his fight and one HUGE thing I took away from Hamilton was that he was a writer! Everything he did from being the right hand man of President George Washington to his financial plans and essays defending the new constitution of the United States after the Revolutionary War, was done with a pen in his hand. He literally wrote himself to success, at least in my eyes. Now as a writer myself, that’s a POWERFUL message.

My relationship with my writing has been all over the place, we love, hate, abuse, ignore, neglect one another constantly and if you look at the date of my blog posts, this post that I’m currently writing is the first thing I’ve made to post in 3 years! I haven’t been so bad a lover to my dear writing though, as I’ve started a lot of things on my own in my own space and time, but not here. This blog is something I started to share with the world and for a long time I never thought my writing would be worthy enough to share with others, until Hamilton.

Now, you may be thinking, was Hamilton that good or is this girl just obsessed and it’s manifesting into a different type of crazy? Well, it’s true, it was that good and yes, I am obsessed. I am obsessed with the artistic ability of everyone that has been involved with this show. I am obsessed with the idea that I went to a musical and watched Black, Asian, Hispanic, and non-white actors and actresses play white historical figures and rap, sing, use slang and cuss words, twerk (yes, they twerked), break dance, and retell stories in such a dynamic and energetic way. Here’s an example, there’s a scene where Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton perform in a rap battle to convince George Washington of action to take based off a a treaty with France. It was dope AF. I am obsessed with the fact that I learned something (no really, I did), and that I’m actually considering reading the biography of Alexander Hamilton and have been googling shit about the American Revolutionary war! THAT’S NOT LIKE ME!! I always hated history.

 

*The first photo is after the second show where I got two of the actors to sign my poster and the first is me at the first show.*

 I’m obsessed with the fact that right now, I’m writing in my blog. I’m obsessed with the fact that I’m really going to start posting things and sharing on my social media so I can share my art. One of Hamilton’s famous songs in the musical is “My Shot” and the first line of the song is, “I am not throwing away my shot” so this is me, getting inspired (obsessed), loading my gun, and NOT throwing away my shot.