LiA Week 3: Amplifying the voices of New Zealand's creative youth with YANZ
This blog post covers the third week of my LiA in New Zealand, working with YANZ to spotlight young creatives and help them get ahead in their careers!
In week 3, the YANZ team attended another pop-up gig on Wednesday as part of New Zealand Music Month, where I helped with set-up, equipment, photography, and participant engagement. I also wrote post-Open Mic write-ups, including a thank-you newsletter with reflections and photos from the event. This taught me a lot about what it's like to work in communications for a non-profit, where the aim is not simply to promote an event, but to recognise the people who made it possible, celebrate the community that gathered, and communicate the organisation’s impact in a way that feels genuine and human.
I found that writing in this context required a careful balance between storytelling, gratitude, and clarity. The newsletter needed to thank performers, audience members, collaborators, and the venue, while also capturing the atmosphere of the night and showing why events like Rangatahi Open Mic matter. It made me think more deeply about how communications can be used as a form of relationship-building — helping participants feel seen, valued, and part of something ongoing. This is very significant for my future pursuit of a career in communications.
YANZ operates on a hybrid schedule, and Friday is normally a work-from-home day. This is why we decided to go on a day trip to a beautiful volcanic beach, Piha, as a team.
The same day, after returning to Auckland, we hosted a Freelancer Friday event. Freelancer Fridays at YANZ offer a free-flow coworking space for young people, allowing them to bring whatever they're working on, whether it’s a creative project, a YouTube video, a short story, or a side hustle. This is an initiative that gets young people to take advantage of the carved-out time to make progress, get feedback and meet new friends. I myself made a new friend there that I'll certainly be catching up with once again during my time here in New Zealand!
This time, the Freelancer Friday event was a special collaboration between YANZ and another organisation, PIXEL, using their Grind Time format, which relies on ice-breakers and the Pomodoro technique. We got a full house, which meant we got to meet even more amazing and inspiring creatives.
Hi!
I’m Katya, a third-year English and French student at the University of Leeds and part of the 2025/26 Laidlaw Scholar cohort, currently completing my LiA in Auckland, New Zealand.
My research project topic last summer was titled ‘Distinctiveness in the Poetry Activity of the Leeds City Region’. I worked in partnership with the National Poetry Centre to conduct interviews with key stakeholders in the poetry scene, which allowed me to draw conclusions about the levels of connectivity and accessibility of poetry in Leeds.
I’m originally from Russia but moved to Slovenia for political reasons when I was 15, then to the UK at 19, and just completed an academic year abroad in Canada, so I’ve had a fair share of adapting to new places. Moving countries meant leaving behind everything I knew, including eight years of acrobatic gymnastics, but it also helped me become more open to change. I see each new chapter as a chance to grow, connect, and tell meaningful stories.
Outside of uni, you’ll probably find me at the gym (a post-acrobatics obsession), with my nose in a book, or planning my next trip—I’ve been to 36 countries so far and don’t plan on slowing down!
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