Bio

Built as a virtual hymnbook, a living library excavating songs, stories, and ideas from the spiritual underground, Common Hymnal has since spawned a family of partner ventures under the wider ‘common’ banner. Even so, its first flame continues to burn brightly, and the expanding ecosystem’s Christian-facing work maintains its vitality under the Common Hymnal banner.

As shifting ideological currents started pushing an emerging generation of creatives to the margins, Common Hymnal stepped in to offer them a landing place - a digital outlet curating content that centered life, justice, and underground spirituality, helping people navigate uncertain times and find safe passage into the future. As the work expanded, it outgrew its website and launched a label, Common Exchange, to better carry a growing catalog that was being shaped by the converging journeys and lived experiences of its contributors.

Invitations for live performances followed and this eclectic mix of artists started taking these songs on the road. The intentionality in the lyrics, especially the heartbeat for justice, soon established the project as a vital voice in movements for liberation and human dignity.

Today, alongside its affiliates, Common People and Commonwealth, Common Hymnal is not merely participating in the cultural conversation but helping reshape it, bringing transformative underground art to the forefront and fostering a movement aimed at the common good.

Soundbytes

“Because of its clarity of message and refusal to sanitize truth, Common Hymnal has naturally aligned with the broader justice movement. From racial justice to gender equity, decolonization to ecological awareness, the songs provide a soundtrack for those working to birth a more just and humane world.”

“Our catalog - shaped by collaboration, prophetic imagination, and a commitment to marginalized communities - bridges praise and protest, documenting an emerging culture that refuses both escapism and empire-thinking.”

“With a growing presence in live events, a multiethnic community of contributors, and a steadily expanding body of recorded work, Common Hymnal is surfacing art from the margins and bringing it into the heart of the public discourse.”

“In a time when many creatives have been displaced from traditional faith spaces, Common Hymnal has become a refuge. A sanctuary where faith is not commodified, and where belonging is not gated by orthodoxy, but extended through relationship, shared vision, and courage.”

“These are the songwriters, poets, storytellers, and thought leaders whose work is too raw, too honest, too justice-centered for the religious industrial complex - but just right for this moment.”

“The existing operating system cannot deliver the renewal it promises. To quote Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” The call for a new theological imagination is not just theoretical - it’s existential. This generation doesn’t want a better Empire. It wants no Empire.”

“The massive shaking we name isn’t just cultural; it’s tectonic in spiritual terms. We are witnessing the breakdown of long-standing frameworks - escapist eschatologies, sacred/secular dichotomies, and ecclesial systems rooted in colonial power dynamics. The cracks reveal a yearning for a faith that is real, embodied, just, and faithful to the teachings of Jesus. This is not deconstruction for deconstruction’s sake. It’s prophetic. It’s a call to abandon the empire-forged faith and return to the subversive margins where Christ always dwelled.”

“The image of a “spiritual underground” evokes the early church under Empire, the hush of mystics in the desert, and the creativity of oppressed communities that birthed liberative theologies. This isn’t just a hiding place; it’s a laboratory. A forge where liturgy becomes protest, theology becomes poetry, worship becomes resistance, community becomes revolution.”

“The elephant in the room is the the violent doubling down of White Christian Nationalism. What we’re seeing is not just a distortion of the gospel - it’s a wholesale replacement of Jesus with Caesar. It's the worship of power under the guise of piety. The cross has been weaponized. The flag raised as idol. And yet, that very contrast clarifies the moment: those moving into the underground aren’t opting out of faith - they’re rejecting a counterfeit. They’re choosing the narrow way.”

“These voices are prophetic midwives of a different world.”

Song Sampler

Seasons
[Jan] New Year’s Resolutions No More Wasted Years
[Jan] MLK Day When Will We Overcome, Be Love
[Feb] Black History Month God Of Color, My History Is Black
[Mar] Women’s History Month Get Up, Girl
[Apr] Easter Passover
[May] AAPI Month Big Enough
[Jun] Juneteenth Jubilee
[Jun] Pride Come To The Table
[Jul] Independence Day Stars and Stripes
[Aug] Summer Sunrise2Sunset
[Sep] Gospel Music Heritage Month God Will Prevail
[Sep/Oct] Hispanic Heritage Month Baila
[Nov] Get Out The Vote Rocks
[Dec] Christmas Mothers And Shepherds

Reasons
Caring For A Terminally Ill Loved One For The Time We Have
Celebrating A Win Born A Champion
Gun Violence Prevention T-Shirt Man
Healing From Church Abuse You’re Not Wrong
Healing From Sexual Abuse He Has Time
Processing Hardship No Vacant Thrones
Processing Trouble Our Pride, Do You Feel It, Too?
Responding To Forced Production In Church Services Show Us What’s Real
Responding To Racism The Medicine
Responding To A National Disaster Rise Up
Reflecting On The Sermon On The Mount The Kingdom Is Yours
Sneak Peek Of A Live Show With Tracks Dress Rehearsal for Live Free Tour
Sunday Morning Worship Yahweh Holy, Before We Put Our Trust In Human Kings / Exalted

Genres
Afrobeats Not Gonna Worry
Classical Crossover God Is Not Abusive
Gospel God Will Prevail
Hip Hop Seat At The Table, Emmaus Cypher
Latin Pop Baila
Negro Spirituals Walk With Me (Otis’ Dream)
Reggae Irie (Sound Mind)
Singer-Songwriter Lines
Soul I Wonder
Spoken Word I Don’t Know Justice, America’s Gospel
World Music A Time, Kama Si We