Sema
From 2018 - 2021, Sema was an evolving experiment in shared attention and community-making across form, place, and time. Initiated as a poetry-focused event series in Boise, Idaho, Sema has also been a virtual space for interviews with writers, and a set of experimental conversations on death and grief.
Sema Podcast
1 / Loss, Being a Therapist, & Intergenerational Grief w/ Ann O’Leary Young
A conversation with Ann O’Leary Young, M.S.W., LCSW, my mother, on the early deaths of her father & brother, how grief passes through families, and being a therapist.
2 / Writing, Detachment, & Ritual w/ Rushi Vyas
Poet Rushi Vyas on writing after sudden & unexpected loss, the wisdom of detachment, and ritual as a tool for healing & decolonization.
3 / Boise, Friendship Loss, & Time w/ Tyler Brewington
Poet Tyler Brewington on place, grief rhythms, the comfort of geologic time, and the link between friendship & formation of self.
5 / Newborn Loss, Place, & Deep Grief w/ Cedar Brant
Poet & botanist Cedar Brant on newborn loss, the role of place in healing, and erasure of self in deep grief and parenthood.
6 / Adoption, Potentiality, & the Loss of Unknowing w/ Erinrose Mager
Writer, editor, & teacher Erinrose Mager on the unknowingness associated with adoption and parental estrangement, the interplay between potentiality & failure, and ritual as a presencing force.
7 / Ambient Loss, Having Children, & the Necessity of Storytelling w/ Camille T. Dungy
Writer & professor Camille T. Dungy on loss as a continuous presence, cross-generational relationships, and climate crisis.
8 / Relationality, Embodiment, & Suicide w/ Mairead Case
Writer, teacher, & editor Mairead Case explores relationality in life & after death, embodiment, and grieving & writing about suicide.
Sema Micro-Interviews
Huma Aatifi
Stephanie Adams-Santos
Kristen Arnett
A. H. Jerriod Avant
Colleen Louise Barry
Tyler Brewington
Abigail Chabitnoy
Sylvia Chan
Richard Chiem
Camille T. Dungy
Cass Eddington
Shira Erlichman
Milo Gallagher
Lyd Havens
Denise Jarrott
Simone John
Adrian Kien
Cole Konopka
Erinrose Mager
Melissa Matthewson
Tony Mancus
Finn Menzies
Alicia Mountain
David Mucklow
John Myers
Lillian Ruth Nickerson
Tommy Pico
Emily Pittinos
Kylan Rice
Cedar Sigo
Emily Skillings
Sasha Steensen
Mathias Svalina
Caroline O’Connor Thomas
Fran Tirado
Stacey Tran
Rushi Vyas
Michael Joseph Walsh
Lisa Wells
Karena Youtz
Sema Boise
