CURRENT PROGRAMMING
Here at IWC, we are dedicated to providing a place for artists from all backgrounds and skill levels to put their work out into the world. By offering this wide variety of artistic opportunities, we create a dynamic art community in the Okanagan Valley between emerging and visiting professional artists and the local community. IWC exposes Kelowna to a breadth of artistic expression that might otherwise be inaccessible to our mid-sized city. Our core programming includes our twice-a-month Open Mic, our Say Anything/Something Reading Series, our annual New Leaves Festival of Arts and Culture, and yoothspohk. See below for details.
Open Mic
The fulcrum of IWC’s programing, our Open Mic, has been offered for fifteen years. Typically, on two Thursdays of every month from September through April, the Open Mic has long been a safe haven and testing ground for the many incredibly talented poets, musicians, and artists we have living in and visiting Kelowna. Our Open Mic is a dedicated space for artists from all backgrounds and skill levels to put their work out into the world to a receptive, encouraging, friendly audience.
Usually hosted at BNA Burger or Hello’ Darlin, two accessible venues, IWC’s Open Mic has long been a safe haven and testing ground for the many talented storytellers living in and visiting Kelowna. BNA Burger offers a minor-friendly environment, with both food and drink served during our events. The space is wheelchair accessible and offers single user, gender neutral washrooms.
Call for Submissions: Inspired Word Prize (and Anthology): a spoken word contest!
The Inspired Word Café is calling for spoken word poetry from the Okanagan for an anthology to be printed for our 16th season.
The Inspired Word Prize aims to celebrate the power of spoken word poetry within the Okanagan region, encompassing the vibrant communities from Osoyoos to Salmon Arm, and Keremeos to Lumby. This anthology project seeks to curate a collection of poetry that reflects the diverse voices and experiences of our local poets.
New Leaves Festival of Arts and Culture
IWC’s annual festival, New Leaves, welcomes myriad artists from the Okanagan and across Canada—including writers, drag queens, filmmakers, musicians and more—for three days of high-calibre performance engaging the idea of how art can be used as a vehicle for sociopolitical resistance and community building.
Taking the idiom “turning over a new leaf,” the festival features an annually changing theme that responds to a community-expressed need or topical issue. Recent themes have included the 2024 “Queer Art as Resistance,” a community-wide response to an increase in prejudice and bigotry in a conservative, white region, and the 2026 “Abundance,” which responds to growing disparities of wealth and the increasing effects of climate crisis to ask how the arts might engage the duality of abundance to affect positive change.
Check out this year’s festival here!
Say Anything/Something Reading Series
Writer and comedian Jo Güstin headlining a 2025 Say Anything/Something event.
Say Anything/Something is a community-based performance and workshop series connecting professional, emerging, and amateur artists, both visiting and local, with the wider Okanagan community through writing and performance. In this series, invited authors and performers present work alongside emerging and amateur authors and performers, and offer accessible, free literary workshops to the public. Through this combination of presenters and by opening with an Open Mic, Say Anything/Something creates networking, training, and knowledge sharing opportunities across practitioners of varying skill level and experience.
Yoothspohk Mentorship Program
“Yoothspohk” is a youth spoken word mentorship program which launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. This program began as a way to connect Kelowna youth during a disconnected time and aims to do so through the arts by fostering skills and knowledge in contemporary performance poetry. Through classroom workshops delivered by local artists, Syilx storytellers, musicians, poets, and performers, students learn a variety of skills, including introduction to spoken word, performance, public speaking, poetry writing, and more. Students have the opportunity to learn from professional artists, working both collaboratively and independently. This program culminates in the “yoothspohk Youth Showcase,” a final event which gives participants the opportunity to read their work to an audience of friends, family, and peers.
Since 2021, the program has engaged over 800 students, teachers, and local artists, and continues to grow each year. This program is sponsored generously by Valley First, a Division of First West Credit Union and funded through the Art Starts program.
