Using strength of words against hate attacks

Hate attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders — attacks rooted in racist blame for the COVID-19 virus — have been met with horror, revulsion and vows to stand with those targeted. In a live-streamed reading at 5:30 p.m. Monday, members of the ODU community will share original poems and vignettes in their response.

Faculty member Luisa Igloria, Virginia’s poet laureate, will lead “Stronger Together.” Others: Samia Ahmed, Jem Baldisimo, Roudri Banerjee, Qiu Jin Hailstork, Gabriela Igloria, Michiko Kaneyasu, Ling Li, Hua Liu, Minori Marken, Benjamin Naka-Hasebe Kingsley, Lili Louzhi Nizankiewicz, Cesar A. Pinto, Zhongtang Ren, Courtney Tala, Priya Vashist, Rachawan Wongtrirat and Weiyong Zhang. Music by Kishi Bashi and Paul S. Kim. Via Zoom. For a link, register: tinyurl.com/ODUstronger.

Pirateland: Here we live where pirates once boldly sailed. If you live, more specifically, in Hampton, you’re somewhere near where Blackbeard’s head — freed of its burdens — was hoisted on a pole as a warning to other pirates. Ignominious, and only a taste of pirate lore.

Author Jeremy Moss digs in at 7 p.m. Monday, highlighting Hampton’s connections to the “Golden Age of Piracy,” hosted by the Hampton History Museum. On Facebook Live, tinyurl.com/mosstalk. Moss, a Chesapeake native now in Alexandria, will discuss pirates’ daily life, social issues, political intrigues, battles, treasure and natural disasters, drawing on “The Life and Tryals of the Gentleman Pirate, Major Stede Bonnet” (Koehler Books, 226 pp.). See Denise Watson’s story at PilotOnline for more on Bonnet.

“Self-Publishing: It’s Not All DIY,” a workshop by author Michelle Garren Flye, May 15. hamptonroadswriters.org.

Mike Pence contract opposed: At Simon & Schuster, 216 employees petitioned Monday to cancel the former vice president’s two-book deal. With the contract, they wrote, “we broke the public’s trust in our editorial process, and blatantly contradicted previous public claims in support of Black and other lives made vulnerable by structural oppression.” About 3,500 others signed a different statement of solidarity. (WSJ, Publishers Weekly)

Obituary notes: Lila Nelson Weller, age 105. She worked in her Salt Lake City shop, Weller Book Works, until her son put his foot down over the COVID19 risk in February 2020. Of her age and achievements she’d scoff, “All I ever did was not die.” (Shelf Awareness)