Mississippi Transplant: Church Goin Mule

"Every time I leave the Delta, I am reminded how grateful I am for it. I guess that is the benefit of living many places, when you find where you belong, you really, really, feel 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 artist, storyteller, and manager of Jx Farms , Church Goin Mule.

Portrait of the author | tintype by Michael Foster

Where are you from?

Born in Richmond, Virginia. I grew up across the South, fortunate to spend time with family spinning stories on concrete carports in Morganton, North Carolina, making memories in Memphis, Tennessee, learning photography beneath longleaf pines as a child in Thomasville, Georgia, dreaming of and making a home in the Acadiana region of Louisiana. It all led me to Mississippi and makes me both rooted and rootless,

When did you move to Mississippi and why did you move here?

Had the luck to move to the Mississippi Delta for real in October 2021. I began traveling to the Delta as soon as I got to Louisiana in 2014, it called me. Always been a fan of Blues music, and I’d go just to spend New Year’s alone, just to Be in the Delta, man. Any chance I got. In the pandemic, in May 2020, I traveled up to be in a shack by myself. If I had to be alone at least I could be with my favorite ghosts. And every time I left, I always asked, how could I make it here? What do I have to do? And every time in the Delta was mystical, from the sunsets and sunrises, to the people, to their stories, to the visions,

Close to Heaven | Church Goin Mule

What does “home” mean to you? How does Mississippi fit into that definition?

Home is an awful lot like Love, or God, or Delta. It has its own complex history and Latin names and meaning, but home is how someone says a word, home is a feeling, I wouldn’t define it, in the same way that I believe to my soul Mississippi Is Home. I think where I live now helps me define home, neighbors knowing and helping, and me knowing and helping, too - home is waving to people when you see them on the road, home is the Church Bus parked diagonal in the grocery store parking lot, blocking traffic, because “Hey, how are you doing, I haven’t seen you in so long,” and home is time, home is love, home is attention and care, home is belonging, and for as much as I don’t belong, everyone has made me feel like I do,