Motor Signal is a monthly poetry reading series in Detroit. Our mission statement talks about differentiating ourselves from conventional poetry readings and a huge part of this is the interactive portion of each event. We ask our poets to integrate an activity that involves the audience for a few reasons:
We want to make the audience more engaged with our readers, and with the world of poetry in general. We’ve all been to boring readings where the poet stands up there and drones on & on at the audience; we’re trying to make readings a bit more fun and involving of the audience, which is part of what Literary Detroit (the grassroots group that helps put on Motor Signal) is all about.
Beyond just making the readings more fun, we’re aiming to bring the audience into the readers’ headspace, the space where poetry happens and connections are made and words tumble over one another and resonate. There’s something kind of powerful and electric when this can happen, that (we hope) makes this a different, special kind of poetry reading.
Check out our full blog post about Motor Signal's interactive bit on Lit in the Mitt.
