Walela Nehanda

they/them

Los Angeles, CA

Walela has a shaved head, neon green eyeliner, and a slightly closed lipped smile. They wear a lime green turtleneck paired with a lime green and royal blue plaid blazer and pants and stand with their hands crossed near their abdomen.

Walela Nehanda is a Black, non binary, queer, disabled cultural worker, poet, and author of Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir (Penguin Teen, 2024). Nehanda has been featured as part of Out Magazine’s Class of 2020 consisting of 100 “groundbreaking, ripple-inducing, and culture-shifting people in the nation,” alongside the likes of Janelle Monáe and André Leon Talley. Nehanda has also been featured in Nielsen Foundation x PopShift’s IP List, with their memoir Bless the Blood part of an exclusive list of books by BIPOC authors up for option. They have been spotlighted in publications such as TIME, The Cut, SELF Magazine, and NYLON Magazine and have performed, taught, and provided keynotes and workshops at various institutions including The Atlantic, University of Iowa, USC, UCLA, UCSB, and many more.