Walela Nehanda
Walela Nehanda

Walela Nehanda (they/them) is a queer, non binary, author of critically acclaimed Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir (Penguin Teen). They are a fellow for Ford & Mellon’s 2024 Disability Futures cohort & a member of Out 100’s 2020 Class of “ripple inducing change makers” alongside Janelle Monae & Andre Leon Talley.

Nationally renowned for how their writing and stage presence “shatters mirrors and windows to reveal the jagged shards of self-determination,” Walela provides workshops, keynotes, hosting, performances, and lectures across the country ranging from academic institutions like University of Iowa to The Atlantic’s People v. Cancer Summit.

Their writing has been featured in TIME , The Poetry Foundation, SELF Magazine & they have been interviewed by publications such as: The Cut, Nylon Magazine, The Guardian, and more.

Walela currently resides in their hometown of Los Angeles, California and is typically fixated on astrology, killer whales, figure skating, researching archival practices, and cultural commentary.

 
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Performances & Appearances

Resume

Debut memoir: Bless the Blood received four starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness

Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2024 & Editor’s Pick

2024 Disability Futures Fellow (Ford & Mellon Foundation)

Inaugural member of Nielsen Foundation x Pop Shift’s IP List to diversify books for option

Out Magazine’s Top 100 change-makers of 2020

 

Experience

Author 2019 - present
Folio Literary

Agent: Katherine@FolioLit.com


Debut author of Bless the Blood released in 2024 via Kokila and Penguin Teen

Poet 2013 - present
Publications:

The Poetry Foundation: Crip v. Crip,

Split This Rock: Stem Cell Transplant as Chimera

Performed at: The Atlantic Live, The Hammer Museum, Mark Taper Forum, Politicon, Tree People, Bus Boys & Poets, Reparations Club, Skylight Books, Blue Stockings NYC, Chicago Public Library.

Competed at National Poetry Slam (2015) on Team Hollywood (DPL)


Teaching Artist 2018 - present

University of Iowa, International Writers Program (2024, 6 week program): Focused on creative writing & cultural exchange - built curriculum to focus on the diaspora, disability, and dreaming towards the future

Provided workshops and keynotes at:

UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, USC, St. Olaf’s College, Claremont McKenna, Pomona College, Chapman University, Occidental College, San Diego State University, Bergen Community College, SUNY New Paltz



Facilitator 2009 - present

Specializes in healing circles, writing workshops, and crisis de-escalation via TEEN LINE & Aim 4 The Heart. Integrates facilitation training with teaching artist style.

Freelance Writer 2020 - present

Featured in:

TIME: Why I Stopped Being a “Good” Cancer Patient

SELF Magazine: Social Solidarity Means Staying at Home for Immunocompromised People Like Me

Commentary on health, disability, pop culture, Blackness, and queer existence through a sociopolitical & personal narrative lens

 
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Offerings

With a unique mix of experiences as a teaching artist, facilitator, former community organizer, writer, and performer, Walela can move the hearts of anyone, anywhere from a boardroom to a stadium to a rally to an intimate show. Guided by the Black Radical Tradition & the Black Arts Movement, Walela believes art is a vehicle for societal change, that art is not only a site for internal and interpersonal connection but also a means to preserve an ancestral archive, and that it is our duty, as artists, to contribute, preserve, and create cultural shifts whenever and however possible.

Walela offers the following:

  • Consultant

  • Teaching Artist

  • Creative Space & Processing Facilitator

  • Freelance Writing

  • Host, Performer, or Speaker
     

Testimonials

“No one has stopped me in my tracks since Tupac but Walela. We will study their words for generations as a teacher, healer, and wordsmith”
— Leila Steinberg, founder of AIM 4 The Heart, Tupac's former manager
“In a voice that’s utterly electric and completely new, Walela Nehanda explodes the tidy narratives of the typical illness arc. Equal parts prose and poetry, memoir and manifesto, this book rejects every trope of what it means to be sick and disabled. When in the throes of illness, it’s so easy to feel helpless, but Bless the Blood pulses with a power that’s contagious. ”
— Suleika Jaouad, New York Times bestselling author of Between Two Kingdoms
“As a nurse and a researcher, I have learned so much from Walela about their experience with medical apartheid. Walela has inspired me to educate myself and others about confronting our own implicit bias in health care...In a society where Black femmes are dying because we aren’t listening to their pain, while health professionals like me have A LOT of work to do to dismantle racist, oppressive structures in health care”
— Jackie Nikpour, Nurse

Contact

Fill out form to book Walela for their offerings

or for collaboration & opportunities.

You will receive a response within 2-3 business days

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