Being Progressive Looks Different Here

The bar is lower but the stakes are higher.

If you know me, you know I have too many books, and I can’t stop myself from acquiring more. I love everything about books—their smell, the weight of them in my hands, their visually pleasing covers. Most of all, I love the way books spark my curiosity and imagination. A large swath of my bookshelf is dedicated to books about Mississippi and books by Mississippi writers. These books help me understand and deconstruct my experience as a Southern transplant; they help me dig deep into the history and stories of the place I call home, to understand my role in it all. Books and Mississippi are two of my greatest obsessions, so it only makes sense that the Mississippi Book Festival is my favorite event of the year. 

Branded “a literary lawn party,” the Book Festival draws hundreds of authors and thousands of participants, along with independent book sellers, non-profits, and publishers to the Mississippi Capitol and its grounds during the hottest month of the year. With all the dirty politicking that takes place inside our state’s capitol, I like to imagine that filling the building with writers and book lovers is akin to an intellectual and moral cleansing of its halls (with one notable exception this year). 

It’s one thing to go braless and advocate for prison abolition while living in Williamsburg. It’s an entirely different thing to do so in Mississippi. Going against the status quo here takes more guts and gumption.

Thanks to Rooted, I felt even more deeply connected to our state’s literary community at this year’s festival. I caught up with a handful of Rooted contributors in the book tents, in panels or waiting in line at the book signing tent, and I even got to meet some Rooted readers—the lifeblood of this publication—in person for the first time. At a pre-Book Fest party held at the End of All Music record store, I talked with a Mississippi expat who finds validation in our weekly Rooted questionnaires, where Mississippians discuss what they love and hate and miss about this state. For a number of years, this reader lived in New York City before moving back to the Deep South. In Brooklyn, she said, she never felt particularly progressive or outspoken within her social circle. And yet, upon returning to the South, she finds herself being perceived as borderline radical in her political and social views. I thought this was a fascinating observation, and it got me thinking about how deeply contextual our political identities in this country are.