Black Modern Mystic

In this season finale of Black Modern Mystic, Tamie Spencer-Helms hosts a roundtable with visionaries re-imagining faith beyond traditional boundaries. They explore the non-negotiable elements of Black spiritual traditions, the importance of authenticity, and the future of faith rooted in liberation and community.

Exploring the spiritual and cultural significance of hip hop and theopoetics, this episode features insights from Dr. Leah Brenee Jordan and Dr. Tamice Spencer-Helms. They discuss hip hop as a hush harbor, its role in gender performance, and its connection to spiritual technology, revealing how these art forms serve as powerful tools for truth-telling and liberation.

In this episode, we delve into the ways our guests are constructing sacred architectures—projects, spaces, and ritual technologies grounded in alternative forms of intelligence and the survival strategies of Black communities. Imagine this mashup as a mixtape: each guest offering a unique contribution, a lived practice of resurrection that animates their scholarship, creativity, and liberatory wor...

We explore Hip-Hop as a contemporary hush harbor—a space where Black communities engage in embodied critique and spiritual creativity through sonic, lyrical, and kinetic practice. As with the historic hush harbors of enslaved Africans, Hip-Hop provides a fugitive terrain where Black people can gather, express truth, devise alternative epistemologies, and cultivate communal resilience. In this epis...

In this conversation, Dr. Tamice Spencer-Helms and Dr. Leah Brenee Jordan explore the multifaceted experiences within the Black Church, discussing the joy and pain associated with it. They delve into the concept of the Hush Harbor as a space for healing and authenticity, emphasizing the importance of spirituality, intuition, and community. The discussion also touches on the necessity of clearing e...

Before the sanctuary, before the steeple, there was the Hush Harbor—hidden in the woods, humming with the breath of fugitives who refused to surrender their souls. Baby Suggs’ Clearing echoes this lineage of secret gathering and wild liberation. This episode features Wonder Guide + Worldbuilder Nya Abernathy and Rev. Leroy Barber, guiding us into the deep roots of Black spiritual imagination.

Summary In this conversation, Leah Jordan and Tamice explore the concept of womanism, particularly focusing on its waves and the emergence of a fourth wave that emphasizes rest, self-care, and community. They discuss the importance of ancestral healing, the embodiment of womanist principles, and the integration of identity and spirituality. The dialogue highlights the transformative power of woman...

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Gary F. Green II and Dr. Amey Victoria Adkins Jones for a deep and necessary exploration of womanism as a holy refusal. Born from the lived wisdom and sacred insurgency of Black women, womanist theology refuses the distortions that the world—and the church—place upon Black bodies. When society demands our contortion, womanism calls us back to our truth, our di...

In this inaugural episode of the Black Modern Mystic Sidebars, hosts Tamice and Leah explore the themes of womanist theology, the significance of nature, and the role of pastoral care in liberation. They reflect on Toni Morrison's work, particularly the character Baby Suggs from 'Beloved', and discuss how these themes intersect with their personal experiences and the broader cultural c...

In this episode, I sit down with Rev. Dr. Starlette Thomas to journey into the heart of Baby Suggs’ Clearing in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. The Clearing is more than a scene—it is a sanctuary of sacred refusal, a site where Black bodies reclaim their worth and where truth blooms beyond the reach of white theology. Together, we explore how Baby Suggs’ sermon of self-love, embodied liberation, and comm...