The Motor Signal Reading Series jolts the poetry reading out of its conventional form. Motor Signal invites local poets to read their work, but it goes beyond a typical poetry reading by involving the audience in an activity of literary co-creation. Join us on March 14th for part 2 of our season 6 series with readers Amy Elliott Bragg and Akil Kumarasamy.

Amy Elliott Bragg is a writer, editor and history lover. For Atlas Obscura, Detroit's Model D, and on her own blog (nighttraintodetroit.com) and newsletter, she has explored how Detroit became a city of trees, the origins of cremation in the United States, the story of the woman who launched Detroit's historic preservation movement and why Michigan is on Eastern Time. She is immediate past president of the board of directors of Preservation Detroit, the city's largest historic preservation advocacy organization, and a co-founder of Brick + Beam Detroit, a Knight Cities Challenge-winning project to bring together Detroit's building rehab community. When she's not working at old books or old buildings, she is special projects editor for Crain's Detroit Business. She is a Beloit College graduate and the author of Hidden History of Detroit, published by the History Press in 2011.

Akil Kumarasamy is the author of Half Gods. Her work has appeared in Harper's Magazine, American Short Fiction, Boston Review, among others. She has received fellowships from the University of East Anglia, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and the Schomburg Center. She is a visiting professor in fiction at the Helen Zell Writers' Program.