This DJ Is Making Positive the World Hears Ukrainian Tales

When Daria Kolomiec awoke on Feb. 24 to information that Russian troops had invaded her native Ukraine and have been marching towards Kyiv, she froze. Her cellphone buzzed incessantly as associates close to and much tried to get in contact. She didn’t know what to do or what would occur subsequent. The one factor she knew for sure was that she wasn’t leaving Ukraine.

“That is my land; that is my nation. Why ought to I simply pack up my life in a single bag and escape?” Kolomiec asks.

Earlier than the Russian invasion, Kolomiec, 34, spent a decade working in tv earlier than shifting into music as a DJ and developer of music-­curation app MusiCures. But it surely wasn’t till the battle, when she discovered herself huddled within the basement of a café in Kyiv that doubled as a makeshift bomb shelter, that she discovered her new calling. Impressed by an impromptu sing-along of traditional Ukrainian songs with dozens of her neighbors, Kolomiec determined to dedicate MusiCures to Ukrainian music. She additionally started recording voice notes that might develop into her Diary of Battle podcast, which paperwork how Ukrainian lives have been changed by the war. Since March, she has printed dozens of first-person accounts from throughout Ukraine, with captions in a number of languages.

“I would like these tales to be listened to worldwide,” says Kolomiec. “When you could have such large ache, it’s essential if somebody listens to your story.”

Promoting Ukrainian culture is Kolomiec’s personal private entrance line on this battle. In June, she traveled to New York Metropolis with a bag stuffed with uncommon vinyl information to introduce Individuals to Ukrainian artists reminiscent of Volodymyr Ivasyuk, who many Ukrainians consider was assassinated in 1979 by Soviet authorities. Then as now, Russia has been making an attempt to quash Ukrainian identification, Kolomiec says. “It was repressed for hundreds of years,” she says. “Now I can share it with folks, they usually can like it too.”

Write to Yasmeen Serhan at yasmeen.serhan@time.com.