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Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South
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About This Book
Winfred Rembert grew up as a field hand on a Georgia plantation. He embraced the Civil Rights Movement, endured political violence, survived a lynching, and spent seven years in prison on a chain gang. Years later, seeking a fresh start at the age of 52, he discovered his gift and vision as an artist, and using leather tooling skills he learned in prison, started etching and painting scenes from his youth. Rembert's work has been exhibited at museums and galleries across the country, profiled in the New York Times and more, and honored by Bryan Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative. In Chasing Me to My Grave, he relates his life in prose and paintings—vivid, confrontational, revelatory, complex scenes from the cotton fields and chain gangs of the segregated south to the churches and night clubs of the urban north. This is also the story of finding epic love, and with it the courage to revisit a past that begs to remain buried, as told to Tufts philosopher Erin I. Kelly.
Reviews
"Despite his incredible hardships, Rembert highlights the beauty he encountered, such as the kindness of strangers and his wife, Patsy, who encouraged him to 'turn my stories into art.' This is a stunning portrait of hope in the face of evil, barbarity, and racism."
"preserv[es] [Rembert's] easygoing manner and offhand wit in his recounting of otherwise dire circumstances ..."
"An ultimately uplifting journey from the ugliness of virulent racism to the beauty of art."
"With a foreword by Bryan Stevenson and superb color reproductions, Rembert's self-portrait in word and image belongs in every library."
"a testament to the ways one man used his art to educate, delight and depict the trauma that arises out of memory."
"Rembert's memoir is not just a lens through which we can view American history; at its heart it is a love story ..."
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