Want to be a DJ? Hong Kong’s Moth Foundation is music school and LGBTQ safe space in one
Moth Foundation’s new Sai Ying Pun space plays host to a DJ school that will bring people together in Hong Kong, no matter who they are
Those who take a stroll along the tranquil streets near the post office in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong, are likely to hear a curious mixture of sounds – the rhythmic taps of hammers and whirring of electric drills punctuated by the muted thump of electronic music tracks being seamlessly blended.
The cacophony is coming from the new space of Moth Foundation, where something special is being built.
“We were planning to take a six-month break and do some fundraising and then launch our new space somewhere, but we saw this space, and we were like, ‘It’s perfect,’” says Ahura Mazda, one of the three co-founders of the non-profit organisation that has been touching an increasing number of lives in Hong Kong in recent months.
Following a series of successful events and establishing themselves as a prominent force in Hong Kong’s LGBTQ party scene, the collective established Moth Radio, a not-for-profit community radio that continues to give DJs from all walks of life a platform to express themselves.
The organisation operated for much of its existence out of the attic of an architecture firm, but in February, it moved into its own space for the first time. And while the shop, at the intersection of Pok Fu Lam Road and Third Street, may be small by some measures, Moth’s plans are anything but.
“We were just looking at the state of the world and were like, ‘How can we help?’” says Yaz Gooch, a Moth Foundation co-founder who was born and raised in Hong Kong and also works as a performing arts teacher. “We literally had a meeting and asked ourselves, ‘What can we do that will actually be beneficial to our local society?’