'In the Heights' composer, novelist, artist to lead NYC's 3 Kings Day Parade

NEW YORK (AP) — A Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, a Broadway composer and an influential artist will lead New York City's festive Three Kings Day Parade today.

Thousands of children are expected to march through Manhattan's East Harlem neighborhood to celebrate Three Kings Day, also called Epiphany, the last official day of the Christmas season.

The day celebrates the biblical journey of the three kings to Bethlehem who brought the baby Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The honorary three kings are novelist Oscar Hijuelos, composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda, of the musical "In the Heights," and artist Raphael Montanez Ortiz, a founder of El Museo del Barrio, the parade's organizer.