Join us for an evening of poetry, prose, and music at BNA Burger (in the BNA tasting room)! As part of Say Anything/Something, a community-based performance and workshop series, Inspired Word Café is thrilled to present our Open Mic featuring local author and professor Jake Kennedy and Valeria Rojas Flores! Entry is a $6-$10 sliding scale, and $5 for members.

Doors are at 6:30 pm, and sign up begins promptly at 6:30 pm with our hosts. We have 8 open mic spots, so bring your stories, poems, and music! Spots are first come, first served. Both food and drink will be available from BNA.

About Jake Kennedy: “I like birds” and “I like bikes” were the opening lines of Jake Kennedy’s circa-1979 first-poem-ever… Now, sadly, Jake is 52 and uses words like “assiduous” and “existential” so, like, what a falling off there was, eh? The point is, though, Jake still likes birds and Jake still likes bikes and he keeps trying to find the courage to say it over and over. Finally, other than bikes and birds Jake likes writer John Lent and he (Jake) was lucky enough to edit and introduce his (John’s) recent (2024!) selected poems entitled Molecular Cathedral. Jake will sell you a copy for free if, like, you totally like birds and bikes, too.

Jake is the author of three collections of poetry: The Lateral (Snare Books), Apollinaire’s Speech to the War Medic (Book*hug), and Merz Structure No. 2 Burnt by Children at Play (Book*hug). His most recent chapbook—published by Gaspereau Press—is The Rublev Horse.

There are two single user, gender-neutral washrooms available and the space is wheelchair accessible.

Our programming is made possible by the City of Kelowna, the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC Okanagan, and BNA Brewery.

We respectfully acknowledge that we live and work in the unceded, ancestral territory of the Syilx people. It is a privilege to be able to put on events as uninvited guests on their land.