Denali Nalamalapu’s Holler

Climate organizer Denali Nalamalapu will be in conversation with MJD at Book People on Tuesday, June 10th starting at 6:00 PM to discuss their new book Holler.

This beautiful graphic memoir tells the story of six hopeful activists in Appalachia who had the courage to resist against a threat to their community. 

Drawing from original interviews with the author, Holler is an illustrated look at six inspiring changemakers. Denali Nalamalapu, a climate organizer in their own right, introduces readers to the ordinary people who became resisters of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project that spans approximately 300 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia—a teacher, a single mother, a nurse, an organizer, a photographer, and a seed keeper. 

In West Virginia, Becky Crabtree, grandmother of five, chains herself to her 1970s Ford Pinto to stop construction from destroying her farm. Farther south, in Virginia, young organizer Michael James-Deramo organizes mutual aid to support community members showing up to protest the pipeline expansion. These (and more) are the stories of everyday resistance that show what difference we can make when we stand up for what we love, and stand together in community. When the world tells these resisters to sit down and back off, they refuse to give up. 

More than anything, Holler is an invitation to readers everywhere searching for their own path to activism: sending the message that no matter how small your action is, it’s impactful. The story of the Mountain Valley Pipeline is one we can all relate to, as each and every one of our communities faces the increasing threats of the climate crisis, and the corporations that benefit from the destruction of our natural resources. Holler is a moving and deeply accessible—and beautifully visual—story about change, hope, and humanity.  

Denali Sai Nalamalapu is a climate organizer from Southern Maine and Southern India. Denali lives in Southwest Virginia.

They have written for Truthout, Prism, and Mergoat Magazine, and their climate activism has been covered in Shondaland, Vogue India, Self, The Independent, and elsewhere.

They studied English Literature at Bates College and completed a Fulbright grant in Malaysia.

Denali currently leads the grassroots environmental justice coalition Protect Our Water, Heritage Rights (POWHR). 

MJD is a longtime environmental justice advocate who grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. They were part of the founding body of the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition in 2013 and have a decade of environmental justice based grassroots community organizing experience including several years on the frontline campaigning against the Mountain Valley Pipeline. These days they work as a Registered Peer Recovery Specialist and trauma informed leadership trainer working to build mutual aid based wellness and recovery resources into the fabric of our community organizing spaces. They are currently going through training to become a facilitator of the Good Grief Network model of building resilience and empowerment in a chaotic climate with the hope of creating grassroots community based peer support groups cultivating heart centered emergent spaces through which to heal the trauma of living within the climate crisis.