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.

Noel Didla is from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, South India. She lives in Jackson, Mississippi.

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. 

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.   

Noel with Margaret Walker Center staff and the inaugural class of the Catherine Coleman Institute for Literary Arts, Food, and Social Justice.

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.