“In Lagos, we name our girls / Darling, Sincere, Precious, because / A name is a stake in the grave.” Omotara James reads her poem “Half Girl, Then Elegy,” which appears in her collection, Song of My Softening (Alice James Books, 2022), for this virtual reading with Charif Shanahan and Maggie Smith, hosted by Kaveh Akbar, poetry editor of the Nation.