Wick Poetry Center
The excitement has been building for more than a year, and the day is finally upon us!
The April 8 total solar eclipse has sparked a new opportunity for interactive poetry from Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center.
Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center marks its 40th anniversary this year with three days of poetry events and a gala planned for September to celebrate the program that has provided a platform for creative voices across the globe.
The Wick family has a long history of philanthropy at Kent State University that began in 1984 when brothers Bob and Walt Wick first established scholarships to support undergraduate poets at the university. This most recent gift of $1 million brings the family’s total lifetime commitment to the university to more than $3.5 million.
“Maj wrote poems to, for and about this town, this home of his in Kent,” said David Hassler, director of the Wick Poetry Center in his remarks at the dedication of the Maj Ragain Poetry Park. “His poems gave shelter and solace and sustenance to our community, and it feels so right that we’re dedicating this poetry park today in his memory and his honor.”
Farnaz Fatemi, poet laureate of Santa Cruz County, California, was awarded a $50,000 fellowship from the Academy of American Poets that she will use in partnership with Kent State University's Wick Poetry Center to produce a series of teen poetry workshops. Fatemi is an Iranian-American poet and writer and the author of "Sister Tongue," published in 2022 by the Kent State University Press. She was the winner of the 2021 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, awarded annually by the Wick Poetry Center for a poet's first book of poems.
Lavender Graduation 2023 celebrated Kent State's spring LGBTQ+ graduates.
Kent State University President Todd Diacon and others shared poems written for the recent publication “Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic,” at the book’s release party this spring. His poem is part of a much larger, global community poem that highlights different viewpoints on the worldwide pandemic.