Mississippi Transplant: Delana Karimi-Tavakol

"Home is where I can be authentically and unapologetically myself. Mississippi taught me that."

What does it mean to call Mississippi home? Why do people choose to leave or live in this weird, wonderful, and sometimes infuriating place? When Delana Karimi-Tavakol moved to Jackson after finishing law school in Quebec, many Mississippians had the same question for her: “How long are you staying?” “The revolving door of transplants like me is so familiar, an expiration date is all anyone could expect,” she writes. Now four years in, she’s not planning on going anywhere: “Jackson, specifically, has given me community, security, dignity, desire. If anyone needs me to stay, it’s me.“ Read more about how Delana has fostered a community that keeps her rooted in Mississippi’s capital city.

Delana Karimi-Tavakol lives in Jackson, MS.

Where are you from?

I was born in Los Angeles, and my heritage is Iranian. When someone asks where I’m from, they’re usually searching for one of those two answers. Though I’ve never been satisfied by either. I moved from Los Angeles to Chicago when I was a teenager. From there, to Montreal, where I lived before coming here. I’ve lived in different parts of the country and world, and nourish deep connections to several cultures. I’m all of my “from”s, and I brought them all with me to Mississippi.

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

I moved to Mississippi in August 2020. I was entering my last summer of law school in Quebec, and I needed to decide which side of the U.S.-Canada border to lock down in. I had an internship with the ACLU of Mississippi in Jackson, and I let that factor make the decision for me.

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

Home is where I can be authentically and unapologetically myself. Mississippi taught me that. Jackson, specifically, is the first place I’ve felt free to exist without pretense. As a city, it’s real and honest, and it expects as much from the people who live in it. I’m encouraged to be myself, and I feel held and loved as I am. That’s freedom, and that’s home.

What do you miss most about the place where you’re from?

The food, and the abundantly diverse environments in which to eat it. Pick any cuisine in the world, and I’m sure you could find it prepared authentically and creatively in Los Angeles. Montreal, too, has multiple Persian cafes, each with a different aesthetic and culinary approach. There are many places I love to eat in Jackson, but non-American cuisines are often pigeonholed into offering a certain type of selection and experience that can leave me wanting more. 

Celebrating Chaharshanbeh Suri, a Zoroastrian ritual practiced on the Tuesday before Persian New Year, with other Iranian-Mississippians at Freedom Ridge Park March 2023.

How have you cultivated community in Mississippi? Who are the people who have made you feel rooted here?

My rootedness in Mississippi is fibrous. Unlike tap roots, which are singular and deep, fibrous roots are abundant and wide-reaching. I have deep friendships in Mississippi and I have deep friendships outside of Mississippi. Past a certain threshold of intimacy, relationships transcend place in that way. So for my roots in Mississippi, it’s the fibrous ones that hold me down.

These roots are the personalities I encounter in my everyday. The baristas at Urban Foxes, the staff at Mr. Chen’s, the tree I sit next to on the Chisha Foka Multi-Use Trail, the squirrels outside my window every morning. The ones who’ve seen me at my sloppiest, most mundane, and most real. Over time and repetition I’ve cultivated these roots–plenty, patinaed, and essential.