We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tamice Spencer-Helms. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tamice below.

Tamice , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

One risk I took was starting Subculture Incorporated. After two decades of ministry work on college campuses, I realized that the way ministry was being done no longer aligned with my convictions. I believed it could be done differently — with a pedagogy and praxis that honored the lived experiences and cultural contexts of the students we served. So, I decided to create my own campus ministry and ground our work in research that would undergird a new model of transformation.

It was risky because no one else was doing it this way. I was challenging long-held assumptions about what ministry should look like and using frameworks for measuring success that were unfamiliar to the field. It meant stepping into uncharted territory and creating something that had not yet been seen or validated.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I often say that my work was born in the tension between faith and freedom. After more than two decades of ministry work on college campuses, I began to realize that many of the frameworks shaping Christian education and formation were wounding the very people they claimed to serve. I felt called to reimagine ministry from the ground up — to create something that could nurture liberation, belonging, and self-actualization rather than conformity.

That conviction led me to found Subculture Incorporated, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Black college students and other marginalized communities through culturally grounded spiritual formation, leadership development, and practical care.
Through my writing, teaching, and consulting, I help spiritual exiles, educators, and leaders create spaces of healing and transformation — places where people can integrate who they are with what they believe and how they lead. My creative works — including books, courses, podcasts, and community offerings — are grounded in womanist thought, hip-hop aesthetics, and theologies of embodiment.

What sets my work apart is that it’s deeply personal and deeply researched. It sits at the crossroads of scholarship, spirituality, and lived experience — blending academic rigor with artistic expression and soul-centered praxis. I’m not interested in shallow inspiration; I’m after a hope with teeth — a hope that can bite into real change.

I’m most proud of the communities and individuals who have found freedom through our work — people who have discovered that they can love themselves, their culture, and their Creator without abandoning any part of who they are. What I most want potential clients, followers, and collaborators to know is that everything I do from public speaking to course design, to spiritual direction, is aimed at one thing: helping us all recover our sacred, integrated selves and lead from that wholeness.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson I had to unlearn was that everything had to be perfect before it could be piloted. For a long time, I thought I needed to have every detail figured out before launching something new — every question answered, every contingency planned. But I’ve learned that sometimes it’s okay to build the ship at sea.

That mindset shift has been liberating. Leaning into ecosystems taught me that innovation and transformation rarely happen in controlled environments they happen in motion, in the messy middle, where willingness and possibility meet uncertainty.

Perfectionism for me was fear dressed up as preparation. Now, I trust the process and the people I’m building with. I start with what I have, honor what I know, and stay open to what will emerge along the way.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

A story that celebrates my resilience is the season when I was outed and our organization lost all of our donors. It was one of the most painful and clarifying moments of my life. Everything we had built seemed to crumble overnight, not because of failure in our work, but because of who I am.

Even in the midst of that loss, we chose to keep going. We refused to let other people’s fear define our future. Through creativity, community, and conviction, we found new ways to sustain our mission. Not only did we survive, we went on to launch a successful fellows program that embodied everything we stood for: inclusion, authenticity, and liberation.

That experience taught me that resilience is not about pretending everything is fine. It is about holding onto your purpose when everything else falls away and discovering that what remains is more aligned, more powerful, and more free than before.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theblackmodernmystic.com

Image Credits

Subculture Fellows leadership team.