Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes to Join The Moth for Streaming Mainstage Show

In the Heights creators Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes will join global storytelling nonprofit The Moth, in collaboration with the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, for a special Mainstage show on the closing night of the annual Uptown Arts Stroll/Paseo de las Artes.

The evening will also feature Edgar Ruiz Jr. and host comedian/Moth storyteller CJ Hunt, this show will be live streamed from the historic United Palace in Washington Heights.

The Moth Mainstage marks the culmination of the 2021 Uptown Arts Stroll/Paseo de las Artes, which has grown over the last 14 years from a one-day event to a month-long celebration offering a wide variety of arts and cultural events. This year's program will feature open studios, art exhibitions, concerts, literary events, and performances during the month of June, throughout Northern Manhattan.

Streaming Wednesday, June 30th, 202. Virtual Doors: 7:15PM EST/ Stories: 7:30PM EST. Virtual attendees are encouraged to arrive on time; the event will be locked at 7:45PM EDT.

Live-streamed/presented virtually from United Palace in Washington Heights, NY. Visit themoth.org/virtualmainstage.

Quiara Alegría Hudes is the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Water By the Spoonful; author of a memoir, My Broken Language; and screenwriter for In the Heights and Vivo. Previously, she wrote the book (aka script) for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical In the Heights along with other plays and musicals that have been produced around the world. Her notable essays include High Tide of Heartbreak in American Theater Magazine and Corey Couldn't Take It Anymore in The Cut. In opposition of the carceral state, Hudes and her cousin founded Emancipated Stories, a platform where people behind bars can share one page of their life story with the world. As a barrio feminist and joyous mischief maker, Quiara y su hermana created the Latinx Casting Manifesto. A passionate wife and mom, Hudes is a native of West Philly, U.S.A., and now lives with her family in Washington Heights, NY (on unceded Munsee Lenape land).

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning songwriter, actor and director. He is the creator and original star of Broadway's Hamilton and In the Heights, and the recipient of the 2015 MacArthur Foundation Award and 2018 Kennedy Center Honors. Mr. Miranda, and The Miranda Family, are active supporters of initiatives that increase people of color's representation throughout the arts and government, assure access to women's reproductive health, and promote resilience in Puerto Rico. Additional Broadway credits include: Freestyle Love Supreme (Co-Founder, Guest Star), Bring It On: The Musical (co-composer/co-lyricist) and West Side Story (2009 revival, Spanish translations). TV/Film credits include: In the Heights, Hamilton, His Dark Materials, Fosse/Verdon, Saturday Night Live, Sesame Street, Moana, and Mary Poppins Returns. Forthcoming 2021 film projects include: Vivo, Encanto, and tick, tick...BOOM! (his film directorial debut).He lives with his family in New York.

Edgar Ruiz Jr. (storyteller) is a proud New Yorican born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, and raised in The Bronx. Currently, Edgar is a care coordinator, residing in Westchester County, NY, with his wife, where they're restoring a semi-haunted colonial house from 1924. When not ghostbusting, he enjoys making silly internet videos with his 4-year-old son and empowering his 1-year-old daughter. His hobbies include writing SNL fan fiction, arguing about Star Wars, working on his old Chevy Nova that will probably never run again, and performing stand-up comedy.

CJ Hunt (host) is a comedy writer and director living in NYC. He is currently field producer for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. CJ has also been a staff writer for A&E's Black and White, a cast member on MTV2's Vidiots, and a field producer for BET's The Rundown with Robin Thede. CJ is also directing The Neutral Ground, a forthcoming documentary about monuments and why it's taking so long to break up with the confederacy. He is an Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fellow with New America. A regular host of The Moth, CJ also runs the weekly standup show Good Delivery with cohosts Natasha Vaynblat (Comedy Central) and James Hamilton (Vice News). A graduate from Brown University in Africana Studies, CJ is endlessly fascinated by race and comedy's ability to say what we can't.