Babaloluwa Oyedel was born in Nigeria, but has created a life for himself in Kelowna one word at a time.

The 20-year-old student is known as the back-to-back champion in Kelowna's slam poetry scene, a scene that continues to build momentum in the local arts community. 

“I love words," said Oyedel. "The way they sound, how different accents react to the same word, how the meaning of a word can be shaped and skewed to mean something or something else depending on what proceeds it and what follows it.”

He is also drawn to spoken word because it's an expression of different facets of himself and society, which he wouldn’t necessarily showcase. It allows him to address imporant social issues in his universe.

“The only reason I and a lot of my male friends are even beginning to comprehend and understand the reality of rape culture is because someone made us face that reality from their perspective and I really can’t stress that enough," Oyedel explained to KelownaNow. 

"Minority groups need to speak for themselves and we need to give them the space to do it, and I believe spoken word poetry to be one of those spaces."

This art of performing poetry is something that people in Kelowna are starting to master.

The rise of spoken word poetry and the Inspired Word Café has not gone unnoticed, either. During the Canada Day celebrations downtown, Inspired Word Café held its fourth Kelowna poetry slam to a packed house at Kerry Park.

People listened to 12 different poets, speaking about things from Donald Trump to the addiction many people have with their smartphones.

Rawle James, producer for Inspired Word Café, said the slam wasn’t about one poet beating another, it was about sharing poetry with the people with Kelowna.

“It’s about sharing our words and about sharing our poetry and touching a person in a way they’ve never been touched by poetry before. I had people coming up to me saying that they never knew poetry could be spoken this way.”

James said that he saw people walking by the park, who would stop to listen to the poetry and eventually sit to listen to more.

Photo Credit: Rawle JamesThe poets that performed during Canada Day 2016.

The poets during the Canada Day performance were the definition of diversity, James noted.

“Diversity is what makes us one in spirit. We’re just trying to show people a different way to live life and love each other.”

The Inspired Word Café was created by James six years ago. He started it as a way for his students to have an outlet to share their passions. He never thought it would become such a huge community attraction, which sees more than 300 people in attendance at every slam and open mic.

“Kelowna is growing in many ways. From an economic standpoint, from a population standpoint, diversity and definitely from an arts standpoint,” James said.

“When you come to an open mic you get to see people like yourselves who are shaky and nervous. They’re on the mic doing this and more importantly you get to see the support and love they receive.”

Kelowna’s next poetry event will be happening in September. James said anyone can attend and is encouraged to go becoming a part of a different community group. Information about the next event will be posted on the café’s Facebook page.

For James, the Inspired Word Café is about the poetry, but it’s also more than that and he hopes that’s what people remember.

“It invites people to slow down, sit down and to listen. For however long the show is, to disengage from your smartphone or Facebook or from anything and just be in that moment and listen.”