After getting the Barack Obama seal of approval for his Hamilton Broadway show, Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s year continues to get better. Miranda was one of 24 awarded a $625,000 “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today. The grants – given out over a period of five years with no strings attached – are so-called because there is no application; they are simply awarded to people who “show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work.” There are no requirements for what winners must do with the money. In other words the Foundation basically says “You are a genius and we want you to keep doing you.”
According to The New York Times, Miranda plans to donate some of the funds to “organizations that I have fallen in love with,” like Graham Windham, founded in 1806 by Alexander Hamilton’s wife, Elizabet, and the Mariposa Center, which helps girls in the Dominican Republic.
“This is not all going to go to me,” he said. “This is also going to go to some of the places that have fed my soul.”
Though Miranda has been tweeting about his win, he kinda got overshadowed by his adorable nephew who is not so sure if Miranda is actually a genius.
Chicago community leader Juan Salgado is the other Latino awarded the grant this year. At Instituto del Progreso Latino, he helps immigrant communities through an education program that focuses on placing them in better-paying jobs in the health and manufacturing industries.