Meet Tamiel McKee Bey | writer, community educator, and herbal anthropologist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tamiel McKee Bey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tamiel, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Authenticity is the most important factor behind my success. Being exactly who I say I am, even when no one is watching. Upholding authenticity as a value and an ethic in how I function as an artist and a business owner produces work that is reliable. I believe that no matter what I create or what level in the process I decide to share my work it will always serve its function…and that can change based on the person. Regardless, me showing up as my whole self in my work allows people to connect to their whole selves. Maybe it’s a fragment that’s hooked at first, maybe it’s a piece they’ve been waiting for…clarity, awareness, understanding, curiosity.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art sits at the intersection of ritual, memory, and the Black imaginative tradition. I’m a cultural producer, writer, educator, and herbal anthropologist, but really I’m a vessel for stories and realities that want to live in community.

Everything I create is designed to bring people back to themselves.

What sets me apart is that my work is a practice. It’s lived. My blending comes from ancestral herbal knowledge, my writing comes from a lifetime of feeling deeply, and my teaching comes from the classrooms and community spaces where I’ve learned how sensitive, intuitive, and brilliant Black people are when we’re given room to breathe.

I’m most proud of the ecosystem I’ve built: Maati’s Tea Time, The Woman in the Garden journal, and Black Seeds Bloom. These are portals. They make healing feel accessible, they make ritual feel possible, they make imagination feel like a birthright.

Watching people use my blends to unwind or my prompts to excavate their truth…there’s nothing like it.

Getting here wasn’t easy. I’ve had to build myself while building my work. I’ve moved through financial instability, self-doubt, losing friendships, rebuilding my identity, and learning how to trust my voice again and again. I overcame challenges by slowing down when the world demanded speed, by choosing depth over visibility, and by letting my sensitivity be a skill instead of a liability.

I also learned to work with what I had…small batches, handmade zines, pop-up markets, community partnerships. Those limitations sharpened my creativity.

The biggest lessons?
• Your art will grow as deeply as you’re willing to heal.
• Consistency matters, but self-honoring matters more.
• Community is built, not found.
• And nothing worth keeping is built overnight.

What I want the world to know is simple: my work is for anyone who is learning to listen to themselves again. Every tea is a breath. Every journal entry is a doorway. Every workshop is a gathering place. My story is about becoming present.

If people walk away from my work feeling even 2% more rooted, more tender, more conscious of their own life…then I’ve done what I came here to do.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Vegas has plenty of spectacle, but I’d want them to feel the hidden pockets of art, community, and tenderness that make this city special.

We’d start in the Arts District with tea, a slow walk, and a stop at Analog Dope for books and vinyls. We’d browse galleries at the Arts Factory, eat at spots like Gritz Café and end with empowerment at HerWaistBeads in the Fremont district.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I never feel like I arrive anywhere alone. My work has always been shaped by the people and spirits who held me when I didn’t yet know how to hold myself.

First, I honor my ancestors. Named and unnamed, who understood the earth long before I did. Everything I touch is an echo of their hands.

I also think of the Black creatives, healers, sex workers, educators, and storytellers who have opened worlds for me just by choosing to live honestly. The ones who taught me that our sensitivity is a compass to our unique truths.

Analog Dope, the Black-owned bookshop in Las Vegas, deserves love too. They’ve given me space to build community through writing, ritual, and tea. Their support feels like being invited into community that honors the work.

And lastly, my community…those who show up to sip with me, write with me, breathe with me. They help co-create everything that I do. Every blend, every journal prompt, every workshop exists because someone out there needed it and trusted me enough to receive + offer it.

So if I’m standing anywhere worth celebrating, it’s because all of these people, seen and unseen, stood with me.

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@thewomaninthegarden?si=hRS63SjnuyUa9q47

Image Credits
The Garden Studio, Los Angeles
Black Seeds Bloom, Las Vegas