内容摘要：“Only thing I can judge it by down here is by the trash,” Nunez said. “There was people down here for Mardi Gras, but I don’t think the trash is the way it used to be.”

“Only thing I can judge it by down here is by the trash,” Nunez said. “There was people down here for Mardi Gras, but I don’t think the trash is the way it used to be.”

“This is a book that was published before my great-grandparents were born and I think people will be singing from it long after I’m dead,” said Karlsberg, who met his wife through the a cappella group practice, which is central to his academic career. It’s also his spiritual community.“It’s changed my life to become a Sacred Harp singer.”

Trees encircle Holly Springs church, which has been a historical meeting site for Sacred Harp singers for generations. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)Trees encircle Holly Springs church, which has been a historical meeting site for Sacred Harp singers for generations. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)The nine-member revision committee feels tremendous responsibility, said Ivey, who also worked on the most recent 1991 edition.

Sacred Harp singers are not historical reenactors, he said. They use their hymnals week after week. Some treat them like scrapbooks or family Bibles, tucking mementos between pages, taking notes in the margins and passing them down. Memories and emotions get attached to specific songs, and favorites in life can become memorials in death.“The book is precious to people,” said Ivey, on a March afternoon surrounded by songbooks and related materials at the nonprofit publishing company’s museum in Carrollton, Georgia.

Sacred Harp singing is a remarkably well-documented tradition. The small, unassuming museum — about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Atlanta near the Alabama state line — stewards a trove of recordings and meeting minutes of singing events.

The upcoming edition is years in the making. The revision, authorized by the publishing company’s board of directors in October 2018, was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It now will be released in September at the annual convention of the United Sacred Harp Musical Association in Atlanta., most of them caused by a misstep hidden within their genes. Some conditions can be caught early and treated—but in parts of Africa where population data and resources are scarce, many people go undiagnosed. Rodriguez is trying to change that by connecting patients with genetic testing and medical support, while gathering key data from those patients and their families.

“Most rare disease data has been collected from people of European ancestry, so we have very little knowledge about what’s happening in other parts of the world, mainly in Africa,” Rodriguez said.Ndeye Lam looks at photos of her deceased daughter Mariama who died at age 13 of a rare genetic disease, in Dakar, Senegal, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)

Ndeye Lam looks at photos of her deceased daughter Mariama who died at age 13 of a rare genetic disease, in Dakar, Senegal, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)His research is funded by organizations including the La Caixa Foundation in Spain and the National Ataxia Foundation in the United States. And he has consulted with scientists in China, France, Boston, and elsewhere around the world, documenting rare diseases and novel disease-causing gene variants.