ABOUT INSPIRED WORD CAFÉ
Inspired Word Café Society (IWC) is an educational arts organization that provides accessible literary arts programming for people from all walks of life.
IWC programming runs from September - June each year. Check out our full event details.
At the heart of IWC is the collective—a dynamic volunteer group of professional and amateur writers and performers. Open to anyone in the Okanagan, the collective strives to create a space for literary arts education that fosters inclusion and belonging. Through this collective, IWC amplifies and prioritizes underrepresented voices including rural youth, 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, Indigenous youth, and other equity-deserving groups, offering them pathways to engage in the literary arts. Our programs foster self-expression, build pride, and empower individuals to share their stories on their terms.
Through accessible literary arts education, we nurture creativity, support connection, and build stronger community ties. We focus on collaboration and create opportunities for rural communities, educators, youth, and artists to engage in shared artistic practices that celebrate diverse experiences, traditions, and identities. In doing so, we contribute to inclusion, resilience, and belonging within the Okanagan valley.
Write, but don’t think you’re a writer? IWC disagrees. Words are meant to be heard and Inspired Word Café encourages Kelowna’s community to share their words in a setting that embraces everyone who participates. Please come join us! Our events are open to everyone: professional authors, amateurs, musicians, poets, fiction writers, storytellers, comedians, dancers, and more.
We respectfully acknowledge that we live and work in the unceded, ancestral territories of the syilx peoples. It is a privilege to be able to put on events as uninvited guests on their land. To read more about our commitments to syilx sovereignty, check out our Biodiversities of Gender project.
IWC MANDATE
To foster the awareness, exploration, education, and development of contemporary performance poetry, competitive slams, and literary arts in the Okanagan Valley through public presentations, workshops, and other community-focussed activities.
To educate youth about public speaking, personal development, and community responsibility through annual school and community-wide mentorship programs.
To offer an inclusive space for LGBTQ2SIA+ members interested in literary arts and presentation of LGBTQ2SIA+ work.
To provide paid professional artist wages to Okanagan based writers, performers, and artists.
To be a networking organization that creates connections locally, nationally, and internationally between often-disparate communities through shared artistic practice and engagement.
To support, respect, and honour all community members participating in our programming.
To actively respond to and navigate various access needs as they arise within our community.
IWC MISSION
Inspired Word Café Society (IWC) is a community arts-organization that provides accessible, low-cost literary and performance art programming (including events, education, and mentorship) for local writers, performers, and word lovers from many walks of life, including youth and other equity deserving groups across the Okanagan.
We believe that participation in the literary and performing arts is not only a right for everyone, both as consumers and to creators, but is also a vital part of the creative and emotional well-being of our local community.
IWC VISION
To sustainably present a robust and wide-ranging offering of literary and performing arts programming in the British Columbia interior, and to one day manage an arts presentation venue as an accessible cultural hub for Okanagan artists of various mediums.
ACCESS TENETS
IWC is a creative, collectively-held space where members feel comfortable to share their access needs. We define access as the right of individuals to find comfort in our community.
IWC is a supportive community who listens to the needs of those present. We adapt as those needs and available resources change.
IWC believes everyone is an expert on their own access. We recognize that access is constantly evolving. We support members to voice new needs as they arise.
IWC acts always out of love and kindness. We ask everyone to be gentle with themselves so that they can be gentle with others. Everyone is welcome.
* this document has been guided by Carmen Papalia’s Open Access Tenets