Sacred Nine Project: The Come-Outers
or, the musical activism of the Hutchinson Family Singers
projected for 2022

The title of this project, “Come-Outers,” refers those in the era of the Hutchinsons (mid-to-late 19th century), who would withdraw from established organizations for moral reasons. For example, if a religious denomination had a faction in the north that supported abolition, but a faction in the south that supported slavery, a “Come-Outer” would leave the entire organization, even if they were living in the north.

The Hutchinson Family Singers almost at its very genesis was devoted to using their voices to further the cause of emancipation. Come experience this lecture recital, featuring much of their music in its original form. There also may be new arrangements of some of their songs, and maybe even one or two modern-day reform/protest songs about race in America in the 21st century.

The main source material for this endeavor is the exhaustive monograph by Scott Gac, Singing for Freedom: The Hutchinson Family Singers and the Nineteenth-Century Culture of Reform.