Mississippi Transplant: Noel Didla
"A sense of connection, rootedness, purpose, and love keeps me here. I don't have a tipping point."
What does it mean to call Mississippi home? Why do people choose to leave or live in this weird, wonderful, and sometimes infuriating place? Today we hear from Noel Didla, a “resource generator, cultural strategist, capacity builder and visual storyteller.” Noel first came to Mississippi as a Visiting Scholar with Jackson State University. She now lives in Jackson, where she advocates for food justice, sustainable innovation, and cultural production.
Where are you from?
Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, South India is my birth place. It is in the eastern coastal plains, between a fresh water body (River Krishna) and a salt water body (Bay of Bengal). Our region is known as Annapoorna (the giver of food or nourishment). Guntur is the hub of exporting chillies, tobacco, and cotton.
When did you move to Mississippi and why did you move here?
In 2003 and 2005, I traveled to Mississippi as a Visiting Scholar through Jackson State University’s program with the Mississippi Consortium for International Development (MCID). I was part of the core team that developed JSU’s partnership with Mahatma Gandhi College, Guntur, and I also served as the Program Coordinator that facilitated Faculty and Student Exchange between the Institutions. The program was funded by USAID in collaboration with UNCF and it enabled JSU to build several partnerships with other institutions in South India, expand their research work to global convenings on HIV/AIDS and promote internationalization of JSU. Between 2003-2015, a record number of students came through the partnership to complete their masters and doctoral studies in the STEM disciplines.
I felt a strong determination to take a bold step to move to Jackson, to build myself, learn and engage in institution building, and become a steward of responsible change work.
My dad and I were both employed at Mahatma Gandhi College. He anchored the core team that put the partnership together. He was appointed as the project director and I was asked to serve as the project coordinator. Half way through the project, my father passed away and I was asked to step in. It was a very difficult time in my life, as my dad was my inspiration, my hero and the steward of my dignity. In all that rawness, I experienced JSU and felt safe, seen, and held by folk like Dr. Mary Coleman, Dr. Ally Mack, Dr. Carrine Bishop & Dr. Alisa Mosley. I felt a strong determination to take a bold step to move to Jackson, to build myself, learn and engage in institution building, and become a steward of responsible change work. My mother, who became my emotional anchor, took up the responsibility of raising my son, which enabled me to travel and find myself.
What does “home” mean to you? How does Mississippi fit into that definition?
Home to me is a place that fundamentally protects, honors, and defends my dignity. It’s where I can be fearless, courageous, responsibly experiment, be creative, be joyful, find refuge from badness, nourish myself and loved ones, and dream of now and tomorrow. The Mississippians who hold me down are my home, along with my mom and son. A lot of folk across decades have been making Mississippi home in many, many beautiful ways.
What do you miss most about the place where you’re from?
I miss some of my family, friends, the opportunity to consistently witness growth and change across generations, and the food, such as seasonal fruits and others that only taste incredible there because of the soil/growing conditions and climate, etc.
Mississippi has unschooled me and decolonized my approach to building self, community, power, and transforming systems and economies.
How have you cultivated community in Mississippi? Who are the people who have made you feel rooted here?
Yes I have. Students at Jackson State, especially folk such as Arekia Bennett, Cary Smith, Derrick Stokes, and Albert Sykes. Faculty, admin and staff such as Frankye Adams, Dr. Pat Jernigan, Mr. Graves, Dr. Mary Coleman, and Dr. Bill Cooley. Friends and colleagues such as Jed Oppenheim, Dorothy Triplett, Tyson Jackson, Charles Taylor, Alex Lawson, Liz Broussard Red, Asha Tillman, Robby Luckett, Akil Bakari and Mikea Kambui. Creatives such as Enrika Williams, Jocelyn Poe, George Chuck Patterson, Herb Brown, Stephen Brown, Young Venom, Lacey Reddix, Jason Thompson and Yoseph Ali. Community stewards such as Mr. Figgers. Some of my immigrant friends such as SreeLakshmi Maddali, Indira Veerisetty, Vijay Yerra, Laurette Thissieu, John Odou, Dr. Helen Chukwuma, and Mahesh Nayak were very instrumental in helping me see and believe in the possibilities of what making Jackson home can look like for my son and me as immigrants from the Global South to the Deep South.
What’s the weirdest question or assumption you’ve encountered about Mississippi (or about you as a Mississippian) by someone who’s never been here?
You live where? Whhhhhhyyyy?!?! Is it safe?....
How has living in Mississippi affected your identity and your life’s path?
Mississippi has unschooled me and decolonized my approach to building self, community, power, and transforming systems and economies. Mississippi’s history, the incredible relational and cultural organizing work of local people, and its impact on institutions, systems and culture of the place helped me to understand justice in very unique Mississippi ways. I navigate my vocation and work as a resource generator, cultural strategist, institution builder and visual storyteller. In all those forms of change work, my analysis of power, culture, structure and relationships is intentionally informed and transformed by Mississippi’s truths and legacies.
Mississippians are exceptional in so many ways. I see living here as an invaluable gift that I cannot take for granted.
What is something that you’ve learned about Mississippi only by living here? In what ways has Mississippi lived up to your expectations?
Mississippians are exceptional in so many ways. I see living here as an invaluable gift that I cannot take for granted. I had no expectations of Mississippi. Based on two decades of relationships rooted in tested practices of values alignment, trust and accountability, I created expectations for myself, and I intentionally strive to live up to the expectations that Mississippians who are my home have of me and have of all of us, in fulfilling our generational and intergenerational missions in our beloved Mississippi.
Have you ever thought about moving away? Does a sense of duty keep you rooted here? Do you have a “tipping point”?
No. A sense of connection, rootedness, purpose and love keeps me here. I don't have a tipping point. I’m committed to being a responsible steward of self, relationships, opportunities, resources and determining of power in Mississippi. The rest of my life is committed to all that. When I transition, my ashes will be scattered over the Pearl River, and a marker put into the columbarium at St. Andrews Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Jackson, to personify my belonging in Jackson as my chosen home.
The rest of the country needs to “understand” Mississippi as a home, which is worthy of honor, respect, dignity.
What do you wish the rest of the country understood about Mississippi?
The rest of the country needs to “understand” Mississippi as a home, which is worthy of honor, respect, dignity. The rest of the country needs to reckon with the truth that Mississippi is deserving of equitable and just investments to grow and transform itself towards sustainable development.
Do you have a favorite Mississippi writer, artist, or musician who you think everyone needs to know about?
If you had one billion dollars to invest in Mississippi, how would you spend your money?
Create and co-lead an endowment that supports the sustainable development of:
BIPOC individuals to become responsible stewards of their people, places and institutions;
BIPOC institutions that practice a commitment to transforming systems, economies, cultures and structures;
Infrastructure that is home to creativity, collaboration, sustainable development, responsible knowledge and cultural production;
Infrastructure that is home to upholding joy, conflict transformation, healing, wellness and well-being;
Infrastructure that is home to practicing and advancing equity, justice and economic mobility,
What or who do you want to shamelessly promote? (It can absolutely be a project you’re working on, or something you are involved in.)
I would like to uplift indigenous producers, Black farmers, Vietnamese fisher folk and shrimpers, Black oyster farmers, the work force across the food supply chain and those working in the areas of food justice, food sovereignty, food policy, climate policy, and community economic development.
Love this interview. I especially love how Noel defines home: “Home to me is a place that fundamentally protects, honors, and defends my dignity. It’s where I can be fearless, courageous, responsibly experiment, be creative, be joyful, find refuge from badness, nourish myself and loved ones, and dream of now and tomorrow.”