Welcome to Common People

Dear friends,

We’ve been meaning to write this for some time.

Over the years, many of you have found your way into this work in different ways. You’ve supported us financially, invited us into rooms and communities, listened, shared, asked questions, used the music, or simply sent us encouragement. However it happened, we’ve crossed paths - and that connection has meant more to us than you know.

Until now, we haven’t had a consistent way to stay in touch with the wider circle of people connected to this work. We’re ready to change that. This is the beginning of a more direct line between us.

What began years ago as a small experiment - an online hymnbook gathering songs shaped by both praise and protest - has gradually grown into something broader. The deeper roots of the work reach back to South Africa in the 1980s, where the intertwining of justice and spirituality first became central to the vision that would eventually give rise to Common Hymnal.

We have now reorganized under Common People, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to discovering, developing, connecting, organizing, and platforming artists whose work is overlooked or silenced by conventional institutions. We exist to help sustain meaningful creative work shaped in the margins, carrying enduring cultural and social value, and often struggling to survive.

We’re launching this newsletter to let you see what’s unfolding. Not on a fixed schedule, and never just to fill your inbox - only when there is something worth sharing. From time to time, we’ll send updates, early previews, glimpses behind the scenes, and invitations to engage the work as it takes shape.

This feels like a threshold moment for us. This is the next chapter. We would be honored to write it together.

With gratitude,
Common People