As a young girl growing up in Minneapolis, Valeriya Woodard `25 said her family had always emphasized a value of love, kindness and respect, which they call “LKR.” A LKR tattoo lines the side of Woodard’s right wrist. The LKR tattoo was a family-idea, one that not only Woodard carries, but her mother, father and brother as well.
“That’s our family motto,” Woodard said. “I’m trying to do what I can to give love, kindness and respect to everyone I interact with, every living thing I interact with, including myself.”
Woodard said she did not always value LKR until coming to Grinnell.
“I didn’t value it because I was young and we’re going through puberty, all this shit,” Woodard said. “Coming to college, it was like, ‘Oh shit, this is real life.’ Like, they were preparing me for what real life is.”
Woodard said she experienced implicit racism and a unlderying unwelcoming environment for queer Black women as a student athlete on the Grinnell women’s basketball team. Woodard said that the racism she experienced on the team deeply challenged her sense of self and how she showed up at Grinnell. After her first year, Woodard said that she knew she needed to quit the basketball team for the sake of her mental health.
“Quitting the basketball team after my first year was honestly the best decision I could have made,” Woodard said. “I was the only Black girl on the team … I continuously busted my ass, not only at practice, but at games, and I never played. I never played.”
After quitting the basketball team, Woodard utilized her free time to get in touch with her musical passions. In her second year, she was nominated to become a second-year representative of Grinnell Singers and at the end of her third year was elected as president of Grinnell Singers for the 2024-2025 school year.
“Music is me. I am music. Even if I’m walking for three minutes, I put my headphones in,” Woodard said. “The beauty of live music is that level of vulnerability.”
The vulnerability that grounds Woodard’s love for music has expanded to other performance interests Woodard has taken part of while at Grinnell. For the last four years, Woodard — in drag, “Spice”— has taken part in the Queer People of Color’s drag shows four times.
Woodard said that participating in drag has made her reflect on her body and its transformation from her first to fourth year. Through reflecting on her body and its transformation, Woodard said that she has worked to perform in ways that support her.
“I was a lot thinner back then and I’m a lot more curvy now,” Woodard said. “Building up to this [spring’s drag show], I was like, ‘Damn, my body is different. How are we gonna love her still?’ … Just noticing that difference and adapting my performance to what my body is able to do in a way that feels good for me.”
Woodard said her first two years at Grinnell were challenging. She said she struggled with her habits, relationships and how she moved about the world. In the fall before her third year, Woodard’s great grandmother and grandfather passed away.
“They died within a month of each other, back to back,” Woodard said. “That wake up was like a big wake up, and frankly that hurt led to beauty.”
In the fall of Woodard’s third year, she was a student in a class taught by Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, professor and department chair of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies. Little did Woodard know, checking in with Beaubouef-Lafontant during her required office hours marked a pivot in her time at Grinnell, Woodard said.
“I was very emotional and raw,” Woodard said. “I went to her office hours and I felt that I could really open up to her, and I told her about my great grandma and I showed her a picture.”
A week later Beaubouef pulled Woodard aside after her class and asked her if she would be interested in being a research assistant for the Team Renfrow project, working to analyze photos of Edith Renfrow Smith `37, Grinnell’s first Black graduate and oldest-living alumna.
“She was like, ‘When you showed me the picture of your great grandma, I saw something in you,’” Woodard said. “Dr. B saying that rocked my world truly. It’s been beautiful.”
Since joining Team Renfrow, Woodard has pieced together Black history at Grinnell. Her research has culminated in a Black legacy tree with Edith Renfrow Smith as the seed, Edith Renfrow Smith’s family as the roots, and Black alumni, aspects of Black life at Grinnell and joyous moments as the branches.
During Renfrow Hall Dedication Weekend in September 2024, Woodard also curated an art gallery, gave a speech at a dinner and hosted “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes,” an event inspired by Edith Renfrow Smith’s two mile walk to and from campus from her home on 411 First Avenue.
“I have a whole new perspective on elders, legacy, ancestry. That work opened my eyes up to so much more than I could have ever imagined in regard to how to view life,” Woodard said. “I’m just very grateful.”
Woodard is currently applying to a post-baccalaureate position with the College where she would interview Black alumni, piecing and institutionalizing Black stories and histories at Grinnell.
“Queer Black women can do anything and everything we f**king want to,” Woodard said. “We are here, we exist, we are surviving.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to more accurately represent Woodard’s experience and correct a detail about Woodard’s tattoo. Updated May 8 at 10:48 a.m.
