# Denalda, ex-Oakland Squatter, Warehouse Fire Victim



## Slingshot Collective (Dec 8, 2016)

Today and everyday we want celebrate the badass no-apologizes life of Denalda (who the newspapers are calling "Nicole Siegrist" for some reason), who lost her life in the fire at the Oakland Ghost Ship.

She was based out of the Scratch Pad, an Oakland dream squat circa 2014. Around, you could usually find her at both women’s only squats Fern and Eres, and pretty much anywhere underground worth being.

She was in this band, Introflirt, with Charlie Prowler, who died in the fire as well.

Denalda fucking knew what it was to be a squatter; to be in it for real. To take the time and space you need to have your real self emerge. To fucking take from the city and state whatever the hell you need to become a real person.

Everything Denalda did, she meant. Nothing she did was fake. It was terrifying when she got mad at you, because you knew she meant it. But her smile was worth everything. Her emotions were just out there, for all of us. She showed us what it means to take emotional space. To become real.

Once I had to ask her to leave an art show due to reports of unruly behavior. I remember her standing there on the sidewalk, her eyes tearing up. She was pissed about having to miss the show, but like, super forgiving. Like she was hugging me with her eyes. Like, even while getting thrown out of a show, Denalda was willing to hold space me as a complex being. Whoa.

The city coroner tells us that everyone in the Ghost Ship died of smoke inhalation before the fire got them, so they didn't suffer too much. Is that good though? She's still gone. What hurts is to still feel a lot of love for her. Like she's not here any more, and there's this love. What do we do with this love?

Fuck ideas of "the afterlife." Thank you, Denalda, for showing us what it means to live.





https://introflirt.bandcamp.com/


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## Tude (Dec 8, 2016)

Thank you for passing this info on - this is an oh sooo terribly sad situation for so many people. RIP <3


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## Slingshot Collective (Dec 9, 2016)

Tude said:


> Thank you for passing this info on - this is an oh sooo terribly sad situation for so many people. RIP <3


Thanks, it's been a really hard week...


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## Renegade (Dec 16, 2016)

I did not know her but she sounded like a spectacular human being..i wish i had got a chance to meet her. Be glad for the memories you hold of her and keep her in your heart. Rest in peace fellow Wanderer.


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## Slingshot Collective (Feb 4, 2017)

Renegade said:


> I did not know her but she sounded like a spectacular human being..i wish i had got a chance to meet her. Be glad for the memories you hold of her and keep her in your heart. Rest in peace fellow Wanderer.


Thanks for your words!


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## ScumRag (Oct 16, 2017)

Hey... Sry I'm joimg this thread a lil late but was she at Hellarity in OAK in the mid aughts? So sry to hear this


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## Coywolf (Oct 16, 2017)

Fuck me, this is horrible. This event took so many young and wonderful lives.

All I can say is that I hope their energy finds a suitable place in this universe, because I know they deserve it.

RIP. Keep it real, Oakland.


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## Windwalker (Feb 6, 2020)

Slingshot Collective said:


> View attachment 34455
> 
> Today and everyday we want celebrate the badass no-apologizes life of Denalda (who the newspapers are calling "Nicole Siegrist" for some reason), who lost her life in the fire at the Oakland Ghost Ship.
> 
> ...


I remember the morning this happened. I was in a motel 6 near Oakland with tv on all night and this came on the news. It was early morning, before the sunrise and the reporters were interviewing a fireman who was yelling above the commotion that had to have been fires started in three different places. 

By mid morning the Mayor of Oakland was squashing that theory, hogging the press conference and shutting everyone up.


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