The word homegrown means more than roots. It means work. It’s the tending, the mending, and the steady faith that something will take hold even when the soil is hard.
This issue is about that kind of work — the quiet, everyday work of growing and holding on. The kind that happens in fields and classrooms, in newsrooms and living rooms, in songs that carry our stories from one generation to the next.
When we began shaping this issue, I kept thinking about Aallyah Wright. She’s a Clarksdale native, a Mississippi storyteller, and someone I’ve been proud to know since her earliest days as a reporter at Mississippi Today. Even then, Aallyah was doing the kind of journalism that makes people feel seen. She didn’t just write stories; she stayed with them.
I’ll never forget the coverage she and her Delta Bureau co-reporter, Kelsey Davis Betz, did of Cleveland Central High School and Olecia James — the student who was stripped of her salutatorian title and lost a scholarship opportunity. That story went national, but Aallyah and Kelsey didn’t stop once the headlines faded. They kept following Olecia’s journey, giving her space to tell her own story and holding power to account along the way.
That kind of persistence and care showed what people-centered storytelling can do when it’s built on trust. It also helped shape the engagement system I was building then at Mississippi Today, the same model that became the foundation for Amplify The Sip. It proved something I’ve believed for a long time: when journalism starts with people instead of platforms, it can grow connection, accountability, and even change.
That’s the heart of Amplify, and it’s what makes it meaningful that this issue begins with Aallyah again. Her story about Christi Bland-Miller, a fourth-generation Delta farmer reclaiming her family’s land and legacy, brings us back to the soil and to the people who work it. Christi’s story is about labor and love, but also about vision — the courage to rebuild what was nearly lost.
You’ll also find three beautiful pieces by Jim Beaugez that carry that same spirit. His portrait of Aallyah captures what it means to come home to your purpose. His reflection on B.B. King and Medgar Evers shows how courage and creativity have always shared the same rhythm in Mississippi. And his feature on Pat Sansone, the Mississippi-born member of Wilco and The Autumn Defense, explores the balance between roots and reinvention — a reminder that home can travel with us wherever we go.
Together, these stories form a kind of map. They show what it means to be homegrown: people carrying forward the legacies that shaped them, in their own voices and on their own terms.
That belief is also behind The Sip Story Exchange, our new space for communities, sponsors, and partners to co-create stories that matter. It’s how we make sure storytelling stays rooted in people, culture, and connection — not clicks or algorithms. The Story Exchange helps us build relationships instead of transactions and ensures every story gives something back.
While Aallyah now reports full-time with Capital B, she’ll continue contributing stories for Amplify that reflect the same care and curiosity that guided her from the beginning.
Because Homegrown isn’t just about farming or music or memory. It’s about the work of connection, and the faith that if we keep tending to it, something beautiful will always find a way to grow.