House of Snz: Femininity in Hip-Hop

The first workshop of IWC's New Leaves Festival will be hosted by Sinzere, Canadian Rap-Funk artist and 4-time YYC Music Award Winner.

Join us for an insightful and empowering panel discussion on navigating the challenges and triumphs of being a female rapper in a male-dominated arena. Sinzere will share her personal experiences, strategies for success, and advice for breaking barriers. Discover how resilience, leadership, and authenticity can shatter stereotypes and pave the way for gender equality. Don't miss this opportunity to be inspired and join the conversation for change.

The workshop will be one hour, held in the SUN FM room at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in downtown Kelowna.

With a mission to shed light on the remarkable journey and unyielding resilience of the African diaspora, Sinzere's music resonates with the soul and compels bodies to move to its irresistible groove. Drawing inspiration from icons like Queen Latifah, Notorious BIG, and Kendrick Lamar, Sinzere forges a unique path that pays homage to Hip Hop's golden era.

We know this free workshop will book up quick, so be sure to register your spot!

Learn more about Sinzere here: https://sinzereofficial.com/

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New Leaves Festival of Arts and Culture

Inspired Word Cafe has always put the needs of our community first and foremost. After the Fireweed Eco-Fest, we wondered, would we do another Eco-Fest or create something unique? We wanted to continue with festival programming, but we needed to create programming that aligned with our values, listened to the needs and interests of the community, and could change alongside it. The inaugural New Leaves Festival of Arts and Culture takes the idiom “turning over a new leaf” as inspiration to focus on an annually changing theme speaking to expressed/urgent needs of the community.

Responding to a recent rise in anti-LGBTQ2SIA+ sentiment in the Okanagan and beyond, the 2024 New Leaves theme is “Queer Art as Resistance,” focussing on celebrating queer arts through drag, poetry, music, comedy, dance and more. For three days in Kelowna’s downtown core, a host of artists from from the Okanagan and across Canada will perform (in both French and English) and put on workshops.

Queerness isn’t always about gender or sexuality, rather, as scholar Janet Jakobsen writes, it’s also “resistance to norms and normativity.” Following this, New Leaves 2024 will not just celebrate LGBTQ2SIA+ voices, but explore art’s potential for resistance and change. In gathering for New Leaves 2024, we ask: How might art shift long-held societal perceptions of LGBTQ2SIA+ and other resistant communities? How might coming together to celebrate the contrast in our community help grow it into a safe and inclusive space for people from all walks of life?

For more event listings and to check out the full Festival offerings: https://www.inspiredwordcafe.com/new-leaves-festival-of-arts-and-culture

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Accessibility: TBC

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Thanks to our sponsors and funders:

The University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies

Okanagan School of Education

City of Kelowna

British Columbia Arts Council

The Government of Canada’s Department of Canadian Heritage

Espaces Francophone

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Land Acknowledgement

Inspired Word Café acknowledges that this festival is being held on the unceded ancestral lands of the Syilx Okanagan Peoples. For more information, please visit https://www.syilx.org.