Kent community celebrates opening of May Prentice House

President Beverly Warren joins the Kent community in celebrating the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday for the historic May Prentice House, home to the Wick Poetry Center.

“It’s such an honor to recognize the Wick Poetry Center and the vision to really create something in honor of children who are smiling down on us today for what has been accomplished in their honor by the families who are here,” Warren said.

Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, part of the College of Arts and Sciences, has been encouraging new voices for the past 30 years. James Blank, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said the site is not only a gateway to the campus but also to the engaged learning of Kent State students and the community.

“The College of Arts and Sciences is dedicated to providing students with a strong foundation in liberal arts and humanities, and nothing says that better than the educational activities of the Wick Poetry Center,” Blank said.

Historic Roots

The building historically belonged on Willow Street to May Prentice, one of the first female faculty members of the Kent State Normal College in 1912, said Director David Hassler of the Wick Poetry Center.

“May Prentice was a passionate professor for whom words mattered,” Hassler said. “She believed in the transformative power of imagination and the value of literature.”

The university preserved the 112-year-old house and moved it to its new location on the Lefton Esplanade. Hassler said the May Prentice House will provide a proud home and creative gathering place for the next 30 years and beyond.

Poetry’s New Home

The new center includes a digital community classroom and meeting space for various public gatherings, including the Jo Woodward Reading Room, the Stan and Tom Wick Library and more. Using the newly designed Wick Poetry Center phone application, visitors can digitally interact with the poetry posters through audio, video and animation.

Robert Wick, co-founder of the Wick Poetry Center, thanked the community for its support.

“Wick Poetry has had a blessing of marvelous leadership,” Wick said. “Nowhere else in America, or in any other university, could this have come to the fruition it has here.”

Undergraduate intern Sarah Mcintosh, recipient of an undergraduate honors poetry scholarship, said the May Prentice House offers students a new creative outlet to explore.

“I’ve been with Wick since I was a freshman,” Mcintosh said. “This is a community house open for students to come and have a quiet place to sit upstairs in the poetry loft, write and be more connected to the poetry community.”

Warren said it is the love of the arts that lifts the human spirit and brings about diverse perspectives.

“This center is a haven for poets, both young and old, both accomplished and aspiring, for people who don’t believe themselves to be poets but have a voice that they want to share,” Warren said.