On Thursday night, the Lindemann Performing Arts Center was abuzz with murmurs of “Hamilton” song lyrics in eager anticipation for Daveed Diggs ’04, a Tony-awarding winning artist, to take the stage.
Diggs’s appearance, dubbed “Carrying ‘The Great Force of History’ Within Us: A Conversation on Democracy,” marked the first of many events in the Brown 2026 speaker series, a University initiative celebrating the United States’s semiquincentennial anniversary, The Herald previously reported.
In conversation with Tricia Rose, a professor of Africana Studies, Diggs reflected on his life as an artist. “I gravitated towards being an artist because I was shy,” Diggs said. He was able to express his love for people through performance, he said.
“Y’all feel like you know me but you don’t actually know me,” Diggs joked, adding that a performance allows for a level of separation between the artist and the crowd.
The conversation then shifted to a discussion on democracy, with Rose reading a James Baldwin quote: “The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.”
“I love that quote,” Diggs said, arguing that in order to exist in the present, people must acknowledge and understand the past.
Diggs characterized himself as an optimistic person, sharing that one of the ways he comes to terms with the tumultuous history of the U.S. is through humor and art.
He reflected on the creation of hip-hop, saying that it was a result of making the most of circumstances. “It’s party music birthed out of the absence of instruments and the defunding of public schools,” Diggs said.
“Hip hop has always been an art form that is in direct conversation with the times,” he added.
Diggs started rapping when he was 14, and he said it is the reason he has “any kind of voice.”
“It was the way I learned how to speak,” he said.
Diggs, who originated the roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the Broadway phenomenon “Hamilton,” reflected on why he thinks the musical was so successful. Through “Hamilton,” Diggs said, people realized that American history “can be for all Americans.”
“People wanted to have a reason to feel optimistic,” Diggs said. The characters were “young upstart kids, just like all of us were, and they made a country.”
Diggs then pivoted to sharing advice with students, encouraging young people to learn how to fail. When people are young, he said, they always believe they’re incredible, even if they’re not. But he thinks that’s an important phase.
“Please think you’re incredible, like take all of the advantage of it,” he said. “Fail hard now.”
Diggs discussed the power of theater for social change, saying that while the reach can be limited, the impacts are “infinite.”
Joseph Fiscella ’27 attended the talk and told The Herald that he resonated with Diggs. “Something I’ve been thinking about, even still as a sophomore, is finding my place and my people on campus,” Fiscella said.
Noah Martinez ’27, who celebrated his birthday at the talk, has long admired Diggs. “I was really interested in how he talked about finding community through art and performing in a way that allows for theater to be social change,” he said.
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Talia LeVine is a section editor covering arts and culture. They study Political Science and Visual Art with a focus on photography. In their free time, they can be found drinking copious amounts of coffee.
