Mississippi Expat: Celeste Schueler
"I’ve never been ashamed to say I’m from Mississippi. I’m damn proud of it."
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 poet, feminist, and twin mom Celeste Schueler.
Where are you from?
I was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi and grew up in the Delta until about the age of eight. Then we moved to North Mississippi and I graduated high school from Hernando. I believe my roots are from the Delta though. Whenever I hear myself talk to my daddy, we sound so much alike because he’s from the Delta, too.
Before we moved to North Mississippi, I attended the Catholic school in Clarksdale and walked around Friars Point with my Grandmother Berta. She had a tiny white house in Friars Point and my daddy had a grocery store there as well. My grandmother taught me how to bake cakes, and I would help her in her garden.
When did you move to Seattle and why did you move there?
I moved to Seattle in October 2021 after living in Oklahoma for almost nine years. My husband is an Air Force pilot, and that is what brought us here. I met my spouse when he was stationed at Columbus Air Force Base during my last year at Mississippi University for Women. When he found out he was being stationed in Mississippi, he wanted to meet a Southern woman. We both got lucky in finding each other.
Even though I’m from the Delta and attended college in Columbus, I am still attracted to large cities. I grew up going to Memphis, Jackson, and New Orleans quite a bit. My mother would take me to plays and restaurants in Memphis, and when I got my own car, I would drive into the city to see live music. After I met my husband, I would take him to juke joints in Memphis. We had our honeymoon in New Orleans. I lived in Oklahoma City for almost six years after I got married.
Seattle reminds me a lot of Memphis, since it’s on water, just a much larger body of water. Memphis and New Orleans have the riverboats, but Seattle has the large ships from the Pacific.
What does “home” mean to you? How does Mississippi fit into that definition?
I married my husband in 2013, and we moved to Oklahoma City the day after we married. That first year of marriage was difficult because I was so homesick. The landscape of Oklahoma is vastly different from Mississippi. I missed the trees and azaleas and hydrangeas in my mama’s backyard. For the first year, my husband was the only person I really knew in Oklahoma, and he would deploy quite a bit. We spent the majority of our first years of marriage apart due to deployments and TDYs.
It took a few years, but I learned that home was with my spouse. That really became cemented when we had our twin daughters. My home is where my family is and my family is Nik and Amelia and Catherine.
What do you miss most about Mississippi?
I miss the landscape and liveliness. Rolling hills and the levees against the Mississippi River. Trees and flowers all throughout spring and summer. When I was a featured poet at the Tennessee Williams Tribute in Columbus, my best friend from Oklahoma City joined me, and she commented on how green Mississippi was. I miss that green. That brightness you can only see in the sun against the green rolling grass and the trees and the blooms shining against the bluest sky.
And let's be real, I miss the food. I have to fry my own catfish at home. I have to make my own blue plate specials of fried chicken and greens. Though my mama does make a delicious chocolate pie when we visit.
How have you cultivated community in Seattle? Do you still feel rooted to Mississippi?
I am trying to cultivate community in Seattle, but it is difficult. We live in a suburb of Seattle, but I drive into the city to visit book shops and museums quite a bit. I want to explore more. I’ve taught writing workshops at the Tacoma Public Library and have attended open mics in Seattle and Tacoma in the hopes of making some writing friends. I have yet to find the same writing cohorts that I found in graduate school. I have two degrees from Mississippi University for Women and the community from the school is one reason for that. I am very proud to have those degrees hanging in my house in Washington.
What’s the weirdest question or assumption you’ve encountered about Mississippi (or about you as a Mississippian) by someone who’s never been there?
Folks who meet me and find out I’m from Mississippi are often surprised at how educated I am. That and my progressive beliefs. In middle and high school, I was ridiculed by other students and even teachers for being an outspoken feminist. I think folks are shocked when they hear my accent coming out when I’m talking about feminist issues and policies. It wasn’t until I stepped on MUW’s campus that I truly felt like I could be myself. The right wing evangelicals of Mississippi want to push out anyone who doesn’t think or believe like them.
How has being from Mississippi affected your identity and your life’s path?
I’ve never been ashamed to say I’m from Mississippi. I’m damn proud of it.
Mississippi is home to some of the most wonderful writers and artists and musicians I’ve ever known. Attending one of the most liberal universities in the state definitely helped shape me. Before I met my husband, I knew I wanted to teach and write. But if I’m going to be honest, I didn’t want to stay in Mississippi. Where I would go, I’m not sure. And then if I’ll be honest again, if I hadn’t met my husband, I probably would still be there, doing as much as I could to give back.
I’m passionate about community colleges and I would have loved to make an impact in Mississippi by teaching in one. Education is a vital thing for anyone. Mississippi has some of the worst educational policies in the country and it breaks my heart. But as someone who lived and worked in Oklahoma schools, it is definitely a red state problem. Mississippi is not the only place with issues.
What is something that you’ve come to understand about Mississippi by living elsewhere?
Mississippi isn’t the only place with problems. Especially when it comes to living in a white supremacist patriarchal society. It’s across the country. Mississippi is oppressed and I wish more folks would realize that. I voted against voter ID laws and voted for progressive policies for years in Mississippi and nothing changed. Mississippi makes it difficult to vote, to use your rights for change. The state is full of good ole boys and that mentality is killing the most marginalized populations. Look at the scandal of Brett Favre taking money from welfare recipients to build a volleyball court at University of Southern Mississippi. Imagine if the poorest folks could get money and get out of poverty. But that would infringe on the status quo.
Have you ever thought about moving back? What would need to happen in order for you to move back to Mississippi?
The one and only abortion clinic in Mississippi has been closed. The building has been sold and is now a home decor store. In 2011, as an undergrad at MUW, I worked for the Feminist Majority Foundation to stop a personhood amendment. I was the only person outside of polls with signs and flyers promoting reproductive rights. I talked to folks and changed some minds.
When Roe v. Wade was overturned and I found out the Pink House shut down, I cried for days. Mississippi has some of the worst healthcare in the country and some of the highest rates of teen pregnancies. The folks of Mississippi deserve to have rights over their bodies. Mississippi is not a good place to be if you’re a woman in that regard, and now that I have daughters, I don’t think I would move back.
What do you wish the rest of the country understood about Mississippi?
I wish folks would understand that it’s a complex place. I wish they would understand that what happened in Georgia’s senate election could happen in Mississippi with the right funding and grassroots organizing. Mississippi is oppressed, but there are folks there working, fighting, and voting to make a difference. Mississippi is not to be written off. And Mississippi is not the only place with an unsavory past. This whole country has blood on its hands.
Do you have a favorite Mississippi writer, artist, or musician who you think everyone needs to know about?
I adore my dear friends from MUW, such as C.T. Salazar and Exodus Brownlow. Pop into any juke joint in the Delta and you’ll hear America’s music.
If you had 1 billion dollars to invest in Mississippi, how would you spend your money?
I would invest in education. In 2015, I donated boxes upon boxes of books to the Carrollton school district after I saw that they did not have enough books in their school library. The students went to school in dilapidated trailers. I know that’s not the only school in Mississippi like that. The children of Mississippi deserve a great public education. I would want the money to go toward building better schools and toward policies that would make sure students could learn in a progressive environment.
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 have a sonnet included in the forthcoming Mid/South Sonnets poetry anthology with Belle Point Press. And I am currently working on my first full-length collection of poetry. If there are any presses interested in poems about mental illness and mothering, let me know. I have more creative writing workshops lined up with the Tacoma Public Library and am working with A Gathering of Poets in Tacoma. I’ll just continue to read books and write poems. And be a twin mom.