Chasing Me to My Grave by Winfred Rembert

Book #5!

This memoir was recommended by Mr. Winters for our collection.  You may remember one of our former security guards Mitch?  Winfred Rembert was his father (he has sadly passed on).  The book is unique in that it was an oral history--told to Erin Kelly of Tufts University.  I believe Kelly does Rembert's vernacular and accent well in the written version.  The story is interspersed with Rembert's art, telling his story in paintings, drawings, and leather work.  

This isn't an easy read, and I cried several times.  It begins with a foreword by Bryan Stevenson, of Just Mercy reviewed here previously, then an explanation from Rembert about his whys for finally telling what happened to him.  Rembert was born in rural Georgia, where music heavily influenced his informal education outside his work in cotton fields.  He met his lifelong wife Patsy, with whom he'd have several children, and after spending several years in prison during the Civil Rights movement, came to southern Connecticut.  He was incarcerated again for selling drugs, but an impassioned pleas to the Judge by Patsy saw him freed from both prison and the trade.  She influenced him to tell his story via artwork. 

I am so thankful Mr. Winters encouraged me to read this.  It is another book I wish our History classes could take a look at, or Art, or English--a Black man's life story lacking in our curricula, a local artist's work previously invisible, and the craft of memoir.   

A reminder all opinions expressed on this blog are solely Mrs. W.'s.