In an era when some urge building walls and stepping back from constructive international engagement, a timely message about welcoming refugees and immigrants in America is the basis of an exhibition currently hosted by Summit Artspace at 140 E. Market St. in Akron.

"Traveling Stanzas: Writing Across Borders" is the culmination of two years of helping refugees and recent immigrants in the Akron area gain meaningful connections with their newly adopted country by participating in writing workshops that encourage expression in poetry.

It is the brainchild of Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center and its gifted director, David Hassler.

Hassler and the Wick staff and students have been conducting poetry workshops on the Kent State campus and in greater Akron area schools for years. In them, young people, some who have never thought much about poetry, end up surprising themselves by composing poetry that speaks to their inner thoughts and observations.

Working with refugees and immigrants is a logical expansion of those efforts. Collaborating with the International Institute of Akron, Urban Vision and Project Learn, Wick gained the endorsement of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in the form of a $125,000 grant. It is the largest such grant currently provided to any poetry institute in the nation. Local foundations and donors in Portage County matched it.

In a sense, "Traveling Stanzas: Writing Across Borders" reports on the results of the project’s two years. It is an interactive exhibit that poetically provides insight into the lives of refugees and immigrants resettled in Akron from places like Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Zaire. Visitors see more than 30 beautifully illustrated poems and videos that tell the story of refugee resettlement in the Akron area. The Kent State School of Visual Communication did the illustrating. A touchscreen experience devised by Each and Every, a multidisciplinary Kent design studio staffed with graduates of the School of Visual Communications, enables exhibit visitors to browse content and become poets themselves.

During a recent reception for supporters of the Wick Poetry Center at the Summit Artspace exhibit, youngsters from Myanmar and Akron read samples of their poetry. One likened peace to a waterfall that flows down from a rocky mountain. A poem about a pencil began by calling it a tree that makes nature bloom on paper. "Directions to My House" described passing a gray building, "with the greatest smell in the world."

The poem, "My Heart," written by Usama Halak, a Syrian scholar who became a refugee, was followed by his tearful thanks to David Hassler and the Wick Poetry Center.

KSU President Beverly Warren, an enthusiastic Wick supporter, talked about transcending borders and encouraging a sense of community among the world’s peoples.

The exhibition was conceived more than two years ago, long before the isolationist fulminations of the present day.

"Traveling Stanzas: Writing Across Borders" will go on exhibit in Boston, Austin, Chicago, Tampa, and at the Chautauqua Institution. What great exposure for Kent State University, its Wick Center for Poetry, and for the School of Visual Communication and the Each and Every design firm. Free and open to the public Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday afternoons, it remains at Summit Artspace until Feb. 17.

David E. Dix is the former publisher of the Record-Courier.