Cultural Worker x Transplant Survivor x Agender with Walela Nehanda

What Happens In Between

Episode Summary:

In this week’s episode of What Happens In Between, I sit down with Walela Nehanda, a cultural worker, transplant survivor, and agender writer who created their debut book, Bless the Blood - A Cancer Memoir as an archive for Black, Young, and Disabled people. Walela helps us shift the narrative toward a world rooted in care, interdependence — and ultimately, revolution. How do we define our realities without molding ourselves into a presentation? Join us on today’s episode as we explore what it means to be a Cultural Worker x Transplant Survivor x Agender human using art and writing to push a revolutionary culture forward.

Question of the Week: When navigating through massive amounts of grief, how do we practice compassion without being rooted in ego?

Topics Covered:

• Walela’s definition of a “Cultural Worker”
• The key ingredients of culture from the lens of a Cultural Worker
• Survivorship: A new creation of what it means to be alive
• Walela’s relationship to their body as a cancer and transplant survivor
• How relationships can help us realize that we deserve care
• Interacting with the fluidity of feelings about your writing
• How we can make ourselves legible in response to feelings
• Four questions for our Seedling Round

Resources:

• Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals

Guest Info:

Connect with Walela Nehanda on Instagram. Support Walela on Patreon, and pre-order their debut book: Bless the Blood - A Cancer Memoir here.

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Show Notes:

Walela Nehanda is centering self-acceptance as a means to a more supportive, nurturing future. Walela’s debut book, Bless the Blood - A Cancer Memoir is an archive for Black, Young, and Disabled people, where feelings can be validated in a way they didn’t think was possible. Walela is redefining the next era of the Black Arts Movement and exploring what key ingredients of culture can resolve conflicts in search of survival and progress. If art is a point of political struggle, is culture how we make ourselves legible to each other?

In December 2020, Walela underwent a stem cell transplant and spent 31 days in isolation. Walela helps us shift an overly autonomous narrative toward care and interdependence — and ultimately, revolution. They teach us why being patient with our bodies is proof that survivorship has no end date. Unfurling into (self-)acceptance of love.

Walela reminds us that within the mess there is creation — and it doesn’t have to be coherent. Within it, you can be responsible for the outcome and supported through the process. Join us on today’s episode as we explore what it means to be a Cultural Worker x Transplant Survivor x Agender human using art and writing to push a revolutionary culture forward.

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