Kiarra Lynn Smith
Age: 18
Hometown: Homestead, Fla.
School: Senior at Orchard Farm High School
Hobbies: Drawing, writing, journaling, communicating, learning, reading, poetry

Kiarra Lynn Smith is an artist. She combines her visual and literary talents to tell meaningful stories.

Next Step Magazine: You love to draw. When did you first discover your talent? 
Kiarra: It all began when I was 3 years old. My first picture was a deformed version of Barney. Since then, I have made incredible growth thanks to what God and my teachers have taught me.
When I was in kindergarten, I made the decision to become an artist. I went to a daycare where our teachers made us keep literary and visual daily journals. I also took an art class at Dayspring School of the Arts, where I first learned how to shade. Later, I took classes at the Center of Creative Arts. A teacher there taught me abstract art, and I got more ideas for symbolism in my work.

NSM: Do you have any favorite things to draw?
Kiarra: I mostly stick to drawing people from photo reference because I can carry the photo anywhere and the lighting never changes. For fun, I draw pictures narrating a poem or something that is inspired by an idea. A lot of my drawings also focus on the idea of black history in order to preserve it for future generations. I feel that it is my duty to do this because if I don’t, who will?

NSM: How does visual art play into your life?
Kiarra: Art isn’t an outlet for me. I see it more as a teaching tool. I like art that teaches me things I’ve never known, or makes me think about something I thought I knew. I only have an emotional attachment to my work if I have spent hours creating details that only I can understand.

NSM: You also enjoy writing. Did that come about at the same time as your drawings?
Kiarra: Actually, no. I began writing at 13. I started writing poetry because there was nothing else to do. I had no one to teach me about clichés or the structure of my writing. I was on my own. After completing my 250th poem, I became a member of Yari Yari Literary Group. It is a writing group for children of African descent between the ages of 5 and 18.

NSM: How did this writing group benefit you?
Kiarra: I learned new poetry forms, such as the sonku, tanka, kyrielle and others. I also learned how to edit my work. I was on the editing team, and we made revisions to our poems to submit to a poetry magazine. This group also allowed me to learn about my heritage. From the first grade on, I have gone to predominately white schools, and my knowledge of black history was extremely limited. In Yari Yari, we do spoken word in front of live audiences, so this group has also caused me to overcome my fear of public speaking.

Annalise VanHouten was a Next Step Magazine intern and is a junior at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y. She works as a tour guide for the HWS admissions office and likes to read and write in her spare time.