Youth Week Open Mic Reflections 💭🎻

Ngā mihi to everyone who came to our Rangatahi Open Mic this past Saturday! Below are some photos, reflections and comments on the event.

Author

Youth Arts New Zealand
May 27, 2026

These are your regular Open Mic reflections from Katya, an intern at YANZ!

We are thrilled to have produced the third instalment of the Rangatahi Open Mic last Saturday as part of Ara Taiohi Youth Week. It was incredibly special to see so many rangatahi come together to share music, poetry, art, ideas, and creativity in such a welcoming and supportive environment, as always.

We are extremely grateful to everyone who came to perform and showcase their mahi, as well as those who came to listen and support. We couldn’t do it without such a wonderful group of performers and such a supportive audience!

This time, the Open Mic was held at Gribblehirst Community Hub, which made for a wonderful evening. With a focus on community events, open mics, music, workshops and education, this venue creates opportunities and creative content to uplift their people and whenua.

This special Youth Week edition featured a collaborative mural inviting rangatahi to share their thoughts, art, poetry, and ideas around the prompt: “If you had a worldwide microphone, what would you say?” This sparked discussions about why we create, what gives us hope, what young people need, and many other important questions that are worth reflecting on. We loved everyone’s contributions to the mural, but a deeper reflection on it is still to come! 

Youth Week collaborative mural

Some words from one of our performers, Chantelle📩

I had such a good time at the Youth Arts New Zealand Rangatahi Open Mic on Saturday. It was my second time attending, and dare I say I enjoyed it even more than my first time attending in March.
 
The Gribblehirst Community Hub was a wonderful venue. Despite living in Tāmaki Makaurau my whole life, I had never been to the Hub, and I wish I had found it sooner. It is such a gorgeous, inviting and creative space.
 
It was so lovely to see some of the performers whom I had met at the event in March, and also to see performances from other rangatahi passionate about their craft and the arts.
 
The organisers were wonderful and so well-placed in creating a safe, welcoming and encouraging environment for young people to share their talent. This was especially fitting given that the event took place during Youth Week 2026, with this year’s theme being ‘Taringa whakarongo! Ki te reo o ngā taiohi! Our voices matter! We deserve to be heard.’ After sharing some of my poetry at the event and receiving positive feedback, I can certainly say that I felt heard and that my voice mattered.
 
I look forward to continuing to attend these events whenever they are held!

Scroll for more photography by Harrison 📸

Maria-rose

Jyvahn (Levi)

Kwyze

Gab and Solo

We are also very grateful to Ravitesh from Holding Space Aotearoa for generously being our producing partner and sound & tech manager, and to Kwyze for being our welcoming MC and for keeping the momentum going throughout the evening — we can’t wait to collaborate again in the future.

If you missed it this time, you are not to worry! The Rangatahi Open Mic remains an accessible, no-barrier-to-entry performance opportunity for young performers of any genre, in a professionally supported, alcohol-free, whānau-friendly venue. We normally have around 10 performer spots at each Open Mic, so there will definitely be more opportunities to participate and/or attend in the future.

We can’t wait to keep the Rangatahi Open Mic going as a regular initiative supporting young people in sharing their creativity and building confidence performing live. Keep an eye on our Instagram to stay updated so that you don’t miss information about the next one when it’s announced!

If you performed at the Rangatahi Open Mic last Saturday and have a minute to spare, it would be absolutely wonderful if you could fill in our Feedback Form for the event. We put it together to better understand what participants enjoyed and what could be improved as we continue working to help rangatahi succeed in their creative careers! ✨

Thanks for reading, and hopefully we’ll see you at the next one!

Warmly,
The YANZ Team