Hamilton – the man and the musical – comes to life at Porter Library

Is your entire knowledge of Alexander Hamilton based on Lin Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton: The Musical" soundtrack? That's okay, you're not alone! However, if you'd like to get some more insight on one of our nation's fascinating founding fathers, head to Westlake Porter Public Library this month!

The library will be hosting an exhibit from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History called "Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America." It explores Hamilton’s central role during the Revolutionary War and with the Founding Fathers in creating many of the policies for modern America.

To celebrate the exhibit, the library is hosting two programs exploring "Hamilton: The Musical" and it's ties to American popular culture, music, poetry and more!

Lin Manuel Miranda's score for the hit musicalcreates a uniquely American sound for the stage. What made "Hamilton" explode not only on Broadway, but in the national music scene as a whole? On Tuesday, June 13, at 7:00 p.m., Patrick Fulton, research services librarian for the Cleveland Institute of Music, will discuss the crafting of national identity and popular appeal through the music and rhyme of this contemporary Broadway classic.

In "Hamilton: The Musical," hip hop provides us with musical entertainment and historical facts. However, it also provides us with a form of poetry that has spanned decades. On Wednesday, June 21, at 7:00 p.m., Dr. Julie Burrell, assistant professor of English at Cleveland State University, will explore the hip hop roots of the Broadway musical and consider what hip hop has to do with the American Dream, from the creation of the genre through the crack epidemic.

We hope you will join us for one or both of these wonderful presentations. Call 440-871-2600 to register, or sign up on our website at westlakelibrary.org.