Valdez delivered a talk detailing the graphic novel industry before discussing her memoir, Stepping Up, in-depth
Kiara Valdez ’12, editor for pop-comics imprint Inklore and author of the graphic novel memoir Stepping Up delivered a presentation educating students on her profession during last Friday’s All-School Meeting (ASM). The talk was followed by a performance by Spirit Leaders of Andover Madness (SLAM) and roundtable discussion moderated by John Bird, Instructor in English. Valdez hosted a book signing and in-depth discussion about the book later that evening in the Tang Institute.
During her time at Andover, Valdez served as co-leader of SLAM. In an interview with The Phillipian, she explained her relationship with dance and how this translated into her visual narrative for Stepping Up.
“Being Dominican, I was raised dancing. I danced [at] all the parties, I danced Meringue Bachata Salsa. So I’ve always loved to dance. Even in Andover, in parties, I would dance with all my friends all the time. So SLAM was a great introduction to a new form of dance… [My novel is] called Stepping Up because it’s about step [dance]. There’s a lot of panels that show me learning the movements for step and also show SLAM, dancing, and performing,” said Valdez.
Valdez reflected on the emotions that were brought up during the process of creating Stepping Up and from her audience, including a sense of empathy for her younger self.
“It was very cathartic in the way that I found myself feeling sad. There’s moments in the book where I was like, ‘Poor little Kiara.’ I wish I had the knowledge I have as an adult now. I wish I could go talk to my younger self, which really inspired my message for this book and trying to make sure people feel seen. So, a lot of it was me revisiting wounds I’ve had from childhood that I wasn’t aware of or hadn’t talked about a lot,” said Valdez.
Valdez continued, “I found that, especially now after this book is out, a lot of my other friends that went to different boarding schools, and even people that are at Andover, have come up to me and said, ‘It made me cry,’ or, ‘It brought feelings in me that I didn’t know [I had] just to see your journey.’ It’s a hard time, but it [was] a worthwhile time.”
Kamryn Cabrera ’28, co-vice president of AfLatAm, Andover’s Afro-Latine-American society, shared her takeaways from Valdez’s presentation, expressing her gratitude for the progression of inclusivity at the school over time.
[Valdez] explained how when it came to being a student of color, not only was it that you were a student of color, but they also walked around with a certain computer that made them stick out like a sore thumb for being a part of that minority group. But now we see today that you can’t really always tell that,” said Cabrera.
Cabrera continued, “Through [Valdez’s] speech and presentation, we see how much it has changed in only 14 years. You would expect it to be a little more, minimal, even though… we’ve seen so frequently in history how much the Hispanic and Black community are shut down. So now seeing that, in just 14 years, we’ve been able to achieve so much in such a prestigious institute as Andover is pretty surprising to me.”
Having read Stepping Up, Hannah Jung ’28, co-head of Andover Japanese Connection, shared the connections she made with many of the memories discussed in the book, noting their permanence.
“Having read her memoir, I see traces of Andover. [It’s] still really similar to what it is now. For example, the paintings in Underwood [Room] in her book, in one of the panels, it shows blue paintings of the trees in different colors, and just small touches like that. [Valdez] mentioning, ‘Oh, we had unCommons back then, because Commons was under renovation,’ and then having bumped into her when she was walking into The Den yesterday, she was like ‘Wow, this looks exactly the same,’ and I was just like ‘Wow, Andover changes so much, but it also doesn’t change at the same time,’” said Jung.
In her talk, Valdez emphasized the benefits of finding a creative outlet, stressing the importance of self-expression. Gavin Shyroc ’28 explained how, as a male dancer, this aspect of her experiences resonated with him.
“I really appreciate the fact that her memoir highlights the ways in which she finds a space of belonging in an activity that she had never really even thought about participating in before, because I had a somewhat similar experience in that sense because dance is traditionally a female-dominated activity… The book resonated with me on that level because we both have that kind of pointed common of finding belonging in a space in which we can very physically express how we feel,” said Shyroc.
Drawing from her perspective as an alumni, Valdez highlighted the importance of taking initiative and making use of Andover’s resources.
“There are so many resources out there, depending on the department you go to, where you can say, ‘I want to invite this person, please give me the money to do that.’ They would be like, ‘Yeah, sure, write up a proposal, do a little bit of work.’ Just take advantage of those programs, even summer programs and things like that. You don’t know what little thing you do at Andover makes a huge difference in your life,” said Valdez.
