The Hub

Non-Profit Sustainability Workshop with Social Enterprise Academy

Starting on March 14 2018, and continuing in April, May and June, The Hub’s coordinator and senior volunteer have taken part in a workshop on Exploring Non-Profit Sustainability, run by Social Enterprise Academy at No.7 Restaurant & Kick4Life Hotel & Conference Centre. The Hub is taking part in the workshop with 16 other Lesotho based groups and NPOs. We’re learning a lot, and would like to thank Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa for inviting us!

Many thanks to Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa for inviting us, and to Selibeng sa Thuto trust for supporting our travel to training opportunities like this!

Weekend Workshop: Film Making

The Hub’s weekend workshop on film making started Friday March 16, 2018 with a Hub Talk by Pheello Pj Makosholo, Nkopane Mohola and Sayitsheni Mdakhi. They talked about how they got into the TV and film business, and shared stories of what led them to where they are today. We got to hear great advice on education, storytelling, the importance of language and more. All of them spoke about the importance of investing in as many skills as possible. Between the three speakers they have worked as actors, directors, editors, writers, musicians, DJs, one of them has even worked as a computer programmer and flight attendant.

On Saturday March 17 participants got to work as crew and actors on a film set. On Sunday March 18 they partook in various acting exercises, and prepared the clips and sound from Saturday for editing.

Special thanks to Pj, Nkopane and Sayitsheni for spending their weekend and sharing their skills with us. Thanks also to Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa for their support of our weekend workshops, and to Makhoarane Guest House for allowing us to use their grounds as a location for filming!

Sunday Cypher

As part of The Hub’s weekend workshop on sound production, on Sunday March 4 2018, The Hub held an event called Sunday Cypher with and open mic and performances from T-Mech, MIP, Meloh, Ragga Vybz and more. Workshop participants had a chance to practice running the sound system for the event.

Our aim is to have the sound system become an income generating project for The Hub and our members, as well as being able to host our own events.

Special thanks to T-Mech for spending the weekend with us and sharing his knowledge. Many thanks also to the MIP crew, Meloh and Raggavybz Sound System!

We would also like to thank Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa for their support of The Hub’s weekend workshops.

Weekend Workshop: Sound Production

From March 3-4 2018, The Hub held a weekend workshop on sound production, led by Thulo Monyake, A.K.A. T-Mech. He had participants practicing different recording environments and mic placement, and find ways of creating spaces that help to improve quality of sound when recording. These skills will help The Hub’s film crew with their projects, as well as recording voice overs.

Day two started with T-Mech helping participants set up The Hub’s sound system, which was acquired with support from Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa last year. Participants got to learn about each step of setting up the system, and watch T-Mech create a hip hop beat. In the afternoon they hosted an open mic and cypher, with workshop participants running the sound system for performances by T-Mech, MIP, Meloh and RaggaVybz Sound System.

Weekend Workshop: Creative Writing

From February 17-18 2018, Leila Hall led a weekend workshop at The Hub on creative writing. Day one was spent exploring some of the aspects of storytelling that make for powerful books and films and freewriting around memories and imaginative ‘what if…?’ scenarios. On day two, based on their freewrites from day one, participants wrote the first drafts of short stories, poems and film treatments, and shared them with the group. Participants then gave each other feedback on how to improve, and began to rework their stories based on this.

We’re excited to see such enthusiastic and talented storytellers in Morija, ready to tackle diverse and often difficult topics. Look out for our WordPower 2018 magazine to be published later this year – we’ll certainly be including some of the stories from this group!

Big thanks to Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa for their support of our weekend workshops!