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Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South
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.
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.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published September 7, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 225 reviews
September 27, 2022
This book was a collaborative effort between Winfred Rembert and Erin I. Kelly, a philosophy professor at Tufts University. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 2022. An amazing story of Rembert's will to survive and make a living for his family.
"My pictures are carved and painted on leather, using skills I learned in prison. Leather takes a beating, and whatever you do with it, it will hold its shape. You can carve it up and it will hold your picture."
One could say that Winfred Rembert was much like the leather, taking a beating, his body holding the imprint of his trauma and in the end, his soul delivering through his art, the pictures of his growing up years in Cuthbert, Georgia. His mother gave him away as a baby to fifty-one-year-old, Lillian Rembert, Winfred's great aunt, who raised him as her son. He recalls the ways in which Black people were made to suffer in the Jim Crow South. They are harrowing and heartbreaking memories. Some of this is captured in his art, but his art is also about daily life and good times at church or out dancing. It's not every day that I check out a book from the library with such beautiful artwork. The colors are vibrant, and movement is suggested in much of the way Rembert draws his characters. Depictions of more difficult periods of Rembert's life are emotive and arresting.
As I read Rembert's memoir, I think about all the ways humanity has worked out to make others suffer, to try and make others feel less than, and in some cases, deliver pain, and even death.
"You know, so many things go through your mind when they threaten to kill you, when they're doing all those things to you. Your mind is just racing. I kept thinking about what Mama used to say, about racism, and how to deal with White people, about how you supposedly have to satisfy them when you deal with them, whether you are working for them or not. Mama's idea was to stay alive, and she was passionate about that. She felt that she had to do the Uncle Tom thing to stay alive. Her idea was to please White people."
At times it was difficult to read Rembert's memoir, to reconcile the fact of humanity behaving so brutally, saying words that cut and slice, and carrying out actions intended to create suffering and great harm. Thankfully, there were good White people in Rembert's life, but they came much later. A difficult account, but much needed truth telling.
"My pictures are carved and painted on leather, using skills I learned in prison. Leather takes a beating, and whatever you do with it, it will hold its shape. You can carve it up and it will hold your picture."
One could say that Winfred Rembert was much like the leather, taking a beating, his body holding the imprint of his trauma and in the end, his soul delivering through his art, the pictures of his growing up years in Cuthbert, Georgia. His mother gave him away as a baby to fifty-one-year-old, Lillian Rembert, Winfred's great aunt, who raised him as her son. He recalls the ways in which Black people were made to suffer in the Jim Crow South. They are harrowing and heartbreaking memories. Some of this is captured in his art, but his art is also about daily life and good times at church or out dancing. It's not every day that I check out a book from the library with such beautiful artwork. The colors are vibrant, and movement is suggested in much of the way Rembert draws his characters. Depictions of more difficult periods of Rembert's life are emotive and arresting.
As I read Rembert's memoir, I think about all the ways humanity has worked out to make others suffer, to try and make others feel less than, and in some cases, deliver pain, and even death.
"You know, so many things go through your mind when they threaten to kill you, when they're doing all those things to you. Your mind is just racing. I kept thinking about what Mama used to say, about racism, and how to deal with White people, about how you supposedly have to satisfy them when you deal with them, whether you are working for them or not. Mama's idea was to stay alive, and she was passionate about that. She felt that she had to do the Uncle Tom thing to stay alive. Her idea was to please White people."
At times it was difficult to read Rembert's memoir, to reconcile the fact of humanity behaving so brutally, saying words that cut and slice, and carrying out actions intended to create suffering and great harm. Thankfully, there were good White people in Rembert's life, but they came much later. A difficult account, but much needed truth telling.
December 24, 2021
This book is a masterpiece. Anyone looking to learn more about the African American experience will be unable to put this book down, but the story juxtaposed with the artwork is what makes this book truly extraordinary. Rembert is a gifted storyteller, and while the story reads like an adventure, he doesn’t try to mask the pain and trauma he endured for so many years. His work is brilliant. This book should be required reading in schools across the country.
November 4, 2022
BookTube Prize--Final round for top Non-fiction pick (6 books left total). Review with rating to follow in October.
Yes this book made it to the final round and it is well deserved to make that great group of finalists. I was not enthusiastic about reading it as I knew nothing about the author or his art. Yet after reading it I saw what a unique and well done book it is. It is a memoir of a black man who has lived many lives in his one but along the way he finds a gift for telling his story in wonderful pictures that are both unique and striking and give such a great dimension to his life and the times.
Even if you have scant interest in reading the memoir I would highly recommend you take a look at this book as the photos of his art are so amazing and may draw you into reading some of the text. (I got my copy out of the library and ended up passing it around to many of my friends who ended up passing it around to their friends).
It is a quite amazing story (he learned this artistic technique while in prison). I was so glad the book and story was brought to my attention. Thanks BookTube again for bringing me so many great reads.
Yes this book made it to the final round and it is well deserved to make that great group of finalists. I was not enthusiastic about reading it as I knew nothing about the author or his art. Yet after reading it I saw what a unique and well done book it is. It is a memoir of a black man who has lived many lives in his one but along the way he finds a gift for telling his story in wonderful pictures that are both unique and striking and give such a great dimension to his life and the times.
Even if you have scant interest in reading the memoir I would highly recommend you take a look at this book as the photos of his art are so amazing and may draw you into reading some of the text. (I got my copy out of the library and ended up passing it around to many of my friends who ended up passing it around to their friends).
It is a quite amazing story (he learned this artistic technique while in prison). I was so glad the book and story was brought to my attention. Thanks BookTube again for bringing me so many great reads.
March 3, 2022
This is an astonishing memoir, both for the vivid recollection of what life was like for people of color in Cuthbert, Georgia during the 1940s, 50s and beyond, and for the art that that an extremely talented man managed to create to document that life. The images of his artwork (paintings on carved and tooled leather) will take your breath away. His story will break your heart. Those of us who believed what our parents told us, that racial discrimination had ended during our lifetime, and that anyone who was willing to work hard could "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" will find it especially painful reading. The foreward by Bryan Stevenson (author of "Just Mercy") makes it very clear that this is an extremely important book, with a message that needs to be heard.
October 14, 2022
Review to follow
May 27, 2022
Amazing audiobook production of a very powerful voice.
November 23, 2022
Read for BookTube prize quarter final round.
February 1, 2023
Outstanding
January 24, 2021
This book reads like sitting at the kitchen table listening to elders tell random stories of days gone by. Like those times, there is an intimacy, but also disconnect between the different vignettes that loses something for the people who are external to the people and events being discussed. A separation remains that I found very frustrating. There are portions of this book that WORK when the stories line up with the art and offer the human experience of social phenomena. A bit more editing and coherence would have this easily being a 5 star, adopt for school, recommend to everyone book. ***This is not in the narrative style or voice of Mr. Rembert, but rather tying the various stories together to better communicate the larger narrative.***
The intro left me thinking I would be reading about the art and the lived experience of Jim Crow that led to that art. Instead, it is a loose biography, with lots unsaid. There are other portions that left me saying What did I just read? Why is there no context to this? Why are they leaving the things that explain these actions out? The legacy of Jim Crow and how it appeared in later parts of Mr. Rembert's life is missing. It's implicit, but really needs to be explicit. The narrative unravels without it, and turns it into a scrapbook rather than an art exhibit, to follow the art world comparison.
That said, it's a great jumping off point. Readers CAN and SHOULD do the work of finding the implicit connections here. If you have a book club that does that work, then this is a perfect read. If you don't do the work, then I would recommend other works that will better do that work for you. Doing it yourself is worth it.
Thank you to Winfred Rembert, Erin I. Kelly, Bloomsbury USA, and Netgalley for an ecopy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion
The intro left me thinking I would be reading about the art and the lived experience of Jim Crow that led to that art. Instead, it is a loose biography, with lots unsaid. There are other portions that left me saying What did I just read? Why is there no context to this? Why are they leaving the things that explain these actions out? The legacy of Jim Crow and how it appeared in later parts of Mr. Rembert's life is missing. It's implicit, but really needs to be explicit. The narrative unravels without it, and turns it into a scrapbook rather than an art exhibit, to follow the art world comparison.
That said, it's a great jumping off point. Readers CAN and SHOULD do the work of finding the implicit connections here. If you have a book club that does that work, then this is a perfect read. If you don't do the work, then I would recommend other works that will better do that work for you. Doing it yourself is worth it.
Thank you to Winfred Rembert, Erin I. Kelly, Bloomsbury USA, and Netgalley for an ecopy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion
March 31, 2021
Winfred Rembert is someone with so many experiences that it's hard to understand how he fit them all into one life. He's most known for his stunning art, scenes from his past imprinted and dyed on leather. But he was also a cotton picker in rural Georgia, a civil rights activist, a member of a prison chain gang for seven years, an attempted lynching survivor, and a loving husband and father of eight. This memoir tells his incredible life story, alongside images of his art.
This book truly feels like sitting down and having a conversation with Winfred Rembert. His voice is so clear in the prose, and his art ties in perfectly with his memories. Rembert has had some incredible experiences in his life, but he doesn't shy away from sharing the hardest parts of his life either. This is a thoughtful, earnest memoir that packs in so much history of African American life from the 1940s through today.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
This book truly feels like sitting down and having a conversation with Winfred Rembert. His voice is so clear in the prose, and his art ties in perfectly with his memories. Rembert has had some incredible experiences in his life, but he doesn't shy away from sharing the hardest parts of his life either. This is a thoughtful, earnest memoir that packs in so much history of African American life from the 1940s through today.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
March 1, 2023
A deeply moving memoir of Winfred Rembert, an African American man who grew up in Cuthbert, Georgia, and was raised by his great aunt. As a young man, he worked in the cotton fields alongside his aunt and other relatives and eventually ran off to find a better life. He became an advocate for the Civil Rights movement, working on voting rights, and suffered abuse from oppressors. He survived a near lynching and was eventually imprisoned and forced to work on a chain gang. It was during this time that two key events happened in his life. He met his future wife, and he learned to tool leather. Rembert's life took many turns after he was released from prison. He encountered some extreme highs and extreme lows. With his wife's encouragement, Winfred told the story of his life through pictures he would tool and paint into panels of leather. This book tells that story in words, utilizing the pictures of those leather panels to convey the deep emotions of struggle and survival.
This is a Pulitzer Prize winner from 2022, and it is well deserved of the honor.
Check out the documentary on Rembert titled All Me on Amazon Prime.
This is a Pulitzer Prize winner from 2022, and it is well deserved of the honor.
Check out the documentary on Rembert titled All Me on Amazon Prime.
November 24, 2022
This is a fantastic read and an excellent audiobook! Rembert has lived a life that is almost unbelievable, particularly considering how recently the events he describes took place. Rembert talks about his childhood growing up in Georgia during Jim Crow, taking care to describe the horrific violence that was then commonplace. He participated in the Civil Rights movement, lived through a lynching attempt, spent time in prison, worked on a chain gang, married the love of his life, and became a celebrated artist using skills he learned while incarcerated. It is a fascinating, worthwhile story, and it is wonderfully told. His voice is incredible. The book also spends a couple of chapters on his wife's story, and it makes extraordinarily clear the influence she has had on his life. I really, really appreciated the space that she was given in the book. It felt rare. This is a short read, and I highly recommend taking the time to experience it.
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March 27, 2024Heartbreaking. Inspiring.
March 16, 2024
This memoir, on its own, is a heart-wrenchingly powerful story of growing up black in the Jim Crow south, told candidly and without self-pity. But what makes the book even more spectacular is the art that Rembert created out of his memories and which fills the book. The artwork celebrates the joyousness as well as the brutality he experienced growing up in Alabama . His art is breathtaking, beautiful, full of color and emotion and life and a strong sense of composition and rhythm.
January 20, 2022
I sat in silence after reading and listening to the end of this deeply moving memoir. I was touched on such a profound level it took me a while to come back to full consciousness and aware of my surroundings. There are so many layers to this story; I consider it divine intervention that this book found me. It was an honor to have read about Winfred Rembert the artist, father, man, friend, historical hero who embodies the power and strength of the black man's spirit. His wife is the eternal light that kept his fire burning; their love story is a god-given gift to us all. I can't describe how important this book is to our African-American story of power and raw truth. I am changed on a soul level from reading about his life and the way he was able to retell the intimate emotional experience of just living black in America. You must listen to the Audiobook's narrator, Dion Graham, who was powerful and embodied the full spirit of Winfred Rembert's soul. You must buy the book to enjoy the images of his artwork.
June 4, 2022
This book had me at Intro by Bryan Stevenson. And then it had me without the intro. I didn't approach it anticipating loving it, just expected to find it interesting. It's a treasure--an art book (amazing) and a great story about a real person trying to live his life in the U.S. of A. while Black. I need to buy this one to keep. While I'm sure it's a terrific audio book, how sad not to be able to see the art, too. The book is printed on amazing paper stock so the art is rich and real. I would love to see some of it in person.
October 25, 2022
“My pictures are carved and painted on leather, using skills I learned in prison. Leather takes a beating, and whatever you do with it, it will hold its shape. You can carve it up and. It will hold your picture. My pictures tell about cotton plantations, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, and my time as a prisoner. They celebrate the people I knew and loved and how they lived. These are my memories of Black life in the 1950s and 1960s, and how those of us who left the South took it with us and kept it.” Winfred Rembert was born in 1945 in Georgia. He picked cotton, survived an attempted lynching, spent 7 years on a chain gang, and was a Civil Rights activist. When he turned 52, he took those life experiences and became an incredible artist, recapturing and sharing those memories with the world. There is both great joy and great pain in his work, but most of all there is truth and his voice and vision. This is a tremendous memoir - his life story is fascinating and a reminder that often our collective memory in the US is short - in the scope of US History, he is speaking of recent events. In addition to getting a first hand account of his experiences relative to the times he lived in, you also get a deeply personal story of his relationships with the people in his life, in particular his wife. He told this story in partnership with Erin Kelly, a professor at Tufts and I was impressed with her ability to capture the story in a way that felt like you were sitting at a table with Rembert, listening to him reminisce. The story told in here, in and of itself, would be worth picking up - the fact that Rembert’s artwork is presented throughout the book makes this a treasure. He was so incredibly talented, and being able to read his story and then turn the page and see how he shared it with the world through art was such a perfect reading experience. Chasing Me to My Grave won the Pulitzer for Biography and was deserving of all the accolades.
October 9, 2022
Read this for the booktube prize, ranked 4 out of 6 books (4th from the top)
Actual rating - 4.5 stars
I think about all of the people who went to their grave because they didn’t want to be called “a nigger.” Some people died because they wouldn’t put up with it. They were killed. I want the reader to understand the effect it carries when you use that word and how degrading it is. So I’m using the word to educate. I want to tell about how being called that affected me, and I want the reader to understand that what happened to me was not so long ago.
This is one of my favourite art and civil rights memoir that I have read in a long time. Winfred Rembert was an artist who etched and painted his life and difficult times as a black person in Georgia on smooth leather which made him famous.
The atrocities he faced as a protestor against Jim Crow laws and as a subsequent prisoner and how it translated to art is the core of the book. Also, the book talks about his art process with interactive pictures of the art pieces that have adorned various galleries in the US.
Pleasing White people is a hard thing to do, because if you do try to please them, you never know if you did a good job of it. I don’t care how you please them, I think they walk away thinking you are nobody. And that’s the way they treat you. They think nothing of you.
Highly recommended for art lovers and for those who want to read an art memoir.
Actual rating - 4.5 stars
I think about all of the people who went to their grave because they didn’t want to be called “a nigger.” Some people died because they wouldn’t put up with it. They were killed. I want the reader to understand the effect it carries when you use that word and how degrading it is. So I’m using the word to educate. I want to tell about how being called that affected me, and I want the reader to understand that what happened to me was not so long ago.
This is one of my favourite art and civil rights memoir that I have read in a long time. Winfred Rembert was an artist who etched and painted his life and difficult times as a black person in Georgia on smooth leather which made him famous.
The atrocities he faced as a protestor against Jim Crow laws and as a subsequent prisoner and how it translated to art is the core of the book. Also, the book talks about his art process with interactive pictures of the art pieces that have adorned various galleries in the US.
Pleasing White people is a hard thing to do, because if you do try to please them, you never know if you did a good job of it. I don’t care how you please them, I think they walk away thinking you are nobody. And that’s the way they treat you. They think nothing of you.
Highly recommended for art lovers and for those who want to read an art memoir.
January 9, 2024
I was gifted a calendar featuring the art of this author and realized I had his book on my TBR. I then discovered a documentary and that the author had posthumously received the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Add to all of that, the foreword was written by one of my favorite people, Bryan Stevenson. All of these amazing things are reason enough for 5 stars, but reading Winfred Rembert’s story while looking at his artwork makes it even more so. It’s a beautiful, special book and an important American story.
June 27, 2022
A beautiful book, especially from an artistic standpoint. His story is harrowing and, if read correctly, reveals how short our memory is about civil rights. Jim Crow existed during my lifetime and even that of my children. The book itself is wonderfully done, with heavy paper and beautiful pictures. (Almost a coffee-table book) BTW there's an excellent documentary about Winfred Rembert, Ashes to Ashes, avaliable on YouTube.
February 3, 2022
The events in this man's life are absolutely incredible, but I believe him. Fighting a sheriff off while locked in a jail cell and making off with his gun?! Surviving a lynching?! Selling heroine for years to provide for his family and somehow not being seduced into drug addiction?! There are so many times you would expect Winfred Rembert to have been killed in this memoir, and yet he lived just long enough to get his life stories written down for the rest of us - he completed the interviews for this book in March 2020 and then died in March of 2021 at the age of 75. Just 75 years and he experienced this much hate and violence from mobs of white people, prison wardens, judges, and potential employers! This is all so recent! He was about 25 years younger than my own grandparents but born into a culture out to dehumanize and kill him. And then late in life starts churning out incredible works of art on leather canvasses using skills he learned in prison and figured out himself. But it is clear by the end of this memoir that gaining fame, praise, and wealth did not remove the suffering, the physical and emotional scars that would keep him from sleeping well.
Read this phenomenal memoir ASAP! I listened to it read by my favorite audiobook narrator - Dion Graham, who performed several wonderful James Baldwin novels - and then studied a physical copy of the book for all the paintings that you will miss out on otherwise. I definitely recommend that method, and it only took ~7 hours.
Read this phenomenal memoir ASAP! I listened to it read by my favorite audiobook narrator - Dion Graham, who performed several wonderful James Baldwin novels - and then studied a physical copy of the book for all the paintings that you will miss out on otherwise. I definitely recommend that method, and it only took ~7 hours.
January 5, 2022
As I read Winfred Rembert’s memoir about growing up Black in Jim Crow Georgia in the 50s and 60s, I could not help but compare his life to that of my mom, a white lady from Northern Virginia. They were nearly the same age, yet their life experiences could not have been further from one another. Mom’s childhood and early adult years were idyllic; Winfred’s were traumatic.
This book is fascinating because Winfred had been through so much in his life and he managed to come out on top, after one hell of a life that included every horrible thing you associate with the Jim Crow south; mass incarceration; police brutality; drug dealing and more. I admire this man for all that he accomplished in his life and I would love to get the chance to see his art some day. I was so sad to read that he passed away about 10 months ago.
This book gave me a better grasp on what it was like for Black people to live in the horrific Jim Crow south and reminded me just how recent those times were in this country. Our country clearly has not worked through/gotten past it yet. It’s a fantastic read and I strongly recommend it. So does my hero, Bryan Stevenson, who wrote the foreword.
This book is fascinating because Winfred had been through so much in his life and he managed to come out on top, after one hell of a life that included every horrible thing you associate with the Jim Crow south; mass incarceration; police brutality; drug dealing and more. I admire this man for all that he accomplished in his life and I would love to get the chance to see his art some day. I was so sad to read that he passed away about 10 months ago.
This book gave me a better grasp on what it was like for Black people to live in the horrific Jim Crow south and reminded me just how recent those times were in this country. Our country clearly has not worked through/gotten past it yet. It’s a fantastic read and I strongly recommend it. So does my hero, Bryan Stevenson, who wrote the foreword.
May 30, 2022
That a Black man can live through such hell and create stunning art from it is a testament to Winfred Rembert’s perseverance and talent. America discards its felons so quickly and without remorse, and Rembert’s book challenges that to its core. Compelling testimony and equally compelling reproductions of his art.
October 10, 2022
In a way, this reminds me of the Henry Louis Gates, Jr. book I read for the BookTube Prize quarterfinals, THE BLACK CHURCH. Not so much because of the similar content matter, but because said book was meant to complement other media—a PBS documentary in that case.
This book, meanwhile, is “mixed media” consisting of the late artist’s famous leather tooling work alongside a memoir as dictated to his co-author, Erin Kelly. To be technical, images of his work are part of the book, so it’s not quite as fragmented as the Gates presentation.
Rembert’s work is highly autobiographical, and depicts his youth and adulthood living as a Black man in the Jim Crow south. His memories range from the common experience of growing up amongst cotton pickers, whose experience wasn’t too different from their enslaved ancestors; to working on the chain gang in prison; and even nearly being lynched. These experiences are naturally harrowing to hear about, but Rembert’s colloquial, storytelling narrative makes them all the more uncanny.
This book is almost universally acclaimed, and interestingly enough most of the lesser-starred reviews on GoodReads come from my fellow BookTube Prize judges (who read this for earlier rounds and thus were able to post their reviews even as the book is still in contention. Granted, I do the same thing after each round ends; can’t just pretend these books live in a vacuum! Anywho.) One criticism I saw was that Rembert was framed as an activist, though I’m not sure I agree with that. By default, his life experiences highlight violent racism and gross inequalities that activists are working to change. But I don’t think the book, which hued closely to his point of view most of the time, exaggerated his altruistic endeavors.
Rembert was honest about the crimes he committed, particularly in selling drugs where it seemed he did an honest reckoning after serving his time. This both touched upon the difficulties he found in supporting his family through honest means, and also the harm he abetted by taking part in the drug culture.
Another BookTube prize reviewer didn’t like the “voice” of the story, so we diverge there. She also chafed against judging a coffee table art book (it certainly has the shape and heft of one, to say nothing of the pictures) for a literary prize. To be sure it’s an unusual contender, even in a field as diverse as nonfiction (we judge memoir, social history, biography, science and nature, literary criticism, you name it.) If I were to quibble, although the pictures were exquisite in their use of color, they certainly couldn’t convey the detailing of the actual leatherwork.
And although I liked Winfred’s voice, there’s something a little unfocused with this conversational style of narrative. He jumped around a bit, and then set aside one chapter for Patsy to tell her story (indeed titled “Patsy’s story,”) which I felt to be a little jarring.
Still, overall, color me impressed. I’m a total Team Fiction person, but judging the BookTube Prize these past few years has opened my eyes. Nonfiction isn’t (or doesn’t have to be) as stuffy as its reputation. Even this “genre” (or at least “subgenres” like this one) can find creative and moving ways to tell a story. I’m stepping away from this with a visceral sense of what it meant for a Black man to be alive in a specific time and place. Some of the demonstrative passages about his relationship with his wife may have gotten a little repetitive after awhile, and Rembert’s accounting of his art career wasn’t as engaging as earlier material. But then he ended where he began, chronicling his complicated feelings for the birth mother who abandoned him, and it sucked me back in again. A man with a lot of truths to express. May his memory be a blessing.
This book, meanwhile, is “mixed media” consisting of the late artist’s famous leather tooling work alongside a memoir as dictated to his co-author, Erin Kelly. To be technical, images of his work are part of the book, so it’s not quite as fragmented as the Gates presentation.
Rembert’s work is highly autobiographical, and depicts his youth and adulthood living as a Black man in the Jim Crow south. His memories range from the common experience of growing up amongst cotton pickers, whose experience wasn’t too different from their enslaved ancestors; to working on the chain gang in prison; and even nearly being lynched. These experiences are naturally harrowing to hear about, but Rembert’s colloquial, storytelling narrative makes them all the more uncanny.
This book is almost universally acclaimed, and interestingly enough most of the lesser-starred reviews on GoodReads come from my fellow BookTube Prize judges (who read this for earlier rounds and thus were able to post their reviews even as the book is still in contention. Granted, I do the same thing after each round ends; can’t just pretend these books live in a vacuum! Anywho.) One criticism I saw was that Rembert was framed as an activist, though I’m not sure I agree with that. By default, his life experiences highlight violent racism and gross inequalities that activists are working to change. But I don’t think the book, which hued closely to his point of view most of the time, exaggerated his altruistic endeavors.
Rembert was honest about the crimes he committed, particularly in selling drugs where it seemed he did an honest reckoning after serving his time. This both touched upon the difficulties he found in supporting his family through honest means, and also the harm he abetted by taking part in the drug culture.
Another BookTube prize reviewer didn’t like the “voice” of the story, so we diverge there. She also chafed against judging a coffee table art book (it certainly has the shape and heft of one, to say nothing of the pictures) for a literary prize. To be sure it’s an unusual contender, even in a field as diverse as nonfiction (we judge memoir, social history, biography, science and nature, literary criticism, you name it.) If I were to quibble, although the pictures were exquisite in their use of color, they certainly couldn’t convey the detailing of the actual leatherwork.
And although I liked Winfred’s voice, there’s something a little unfocused with this conversational style of narrative. He jumped around a bit, and then set aside one chapter for Patsy to tell her story (indeed titled “Patsy’s story,”) which I felt to be a little jarring.
Still, overall, color me impressed. I’m a total Team Fiction person, but judging the BookTube Prize these past few years has opened my eyes. Nonfiction isn’t (or doesn’t have to be) as stuffy as its reputation. Even this “genre” (or at least “subgenres” like this one) can find creative and moving ways to tell a story. I’m stepping away from this with a visceral sense of what it meant for a Black man to be alive in a specific time and place. Some of the demonstrative passages about his relationship with his wife may have gotten a little repetitive after awhile, and Rembert’s accounting of his art career wasn’t as engaging as earlier material. But then he ended where he began, chronicling his complicated feelings for the birth mother who abandoned him, and it sucked me back in again. A man with a lot of truths to express. May his memory be a blessing.
October 18, 2023
Rating 5 stars.
“I’m going to tell you what happened. I’m going to tell you the truth.”
Combining stunning art with narrative, this memoir describes the experiences of Winfred Rembert and many other people during the Jim Crow South. It is raw and real, and I believe every word written and told through the incredible images. The power of the images cannot be overstated and must be viewed with your own eyes. Two that are so striking for the story they tell are Almost Me (could have been lynched) and All Me (playing roles saved him). Four that elicit joy are Rocking in the Church (can’t help but move), Sugarcane (so much respect), Flour Bread (love and sacrifice of Mama), and The Baptism (Winfred’s). Truly every one is incredible.
The partnership of Rembert and Erin I. Kelly who captured the narrative as Winfred told it made for a page turning reading experience. I regularly felt like I was sitting across from Winfred and hearing him tell me his stories. Rembert tells of the unspeakable beatings and devastation he and other Black people endured. He also talks about his abandonment and trauma, then finding love (with Patsy). Readers get a front row seat to history - demonstrations in 1965, beatings in jail, and more tragic events. Readers also get insight into what a man frightened and conditioned by evil for decades will do. Rembert takes responsibility for his choices, mistakes, and anger as he was fighting to survive, while also speaking of injustice and a broken system.
To say that hard things happen is an understatement. Reading these words and seeing these images makes me cry and lament for Black people then and now. Highly recommend this read for a more full picture of a life (and community) who are resilient after horrific treatment - intimidation, abuse, and even murder. This is a story of power, survival, hope, history, and ultimately one of love.
“I wanted to tell them I’m a somebody, not a nobody.”
Winfred Rembert
“I’m going to tell you what happened. I’m going to tell you the truth.”
Combining stunning art with narrative, this memoir describes the experiences of Winfred Rembert and many other people during the Jim Crow South. It is raw and real, and I believe every word written and told through the incredible images. The power of the images cannot be overstated and must be viewed with your own eyes. Two that are so striking for the story they tell are Almost Me (could have been lynched) and All Me (playing roles saved him). Four that elicit joy are Rocking in the Church (can’t help but move), Sugarcane (so much respect), Flour Bread (love and sacrifice of Mama), and The Baptism (Winfred’s). Truly every one is incredible.
The partnership of Rembert and Erin I. Kelly who captured the narrative as Winfred told it made for a page turning reading experience. I regularly felt like I was sitting across from Winfred and hearing him tell me his stories. Rembert tells of the unspeakable beatings and devastation he and other Black people endured. He also talks about his abandonment and trauma, then finding love (with Patsy). Readers get a front row seat to history - demonstrations in 1965, beatings in jail, and more tragic events. Readers also get insight into what a man frightened and conditioned by evil for decades will do. Rembert takes responsibility for his choices, mistakes, and anger as he was fighting to survive, while also speaking of injustice and a broken system.
To say that hard things happen is an understatement. Reading these words and seeing these images makes me cry and lament for Black people then and now. Highly recommend this read for a more full picture of a life (and community) who are resilient after horrific treatment - intimidation, abuse, and even murder. This is a story of power, survival, hope, history, and ultimately one of love.
“I wanted to tell them I’m a somebody, not a nobody.”
Winfred Rembert
February 4, 2023
"My pictures are carved and painted on leather, using skills I learned in prison. Leather takes a beating, and whatever you do with it, it will hold its shape. You can carve it up and it will hold your picture. My pictures tell about cotton plantations, Jim Crow, the civil rights movement, and my time as a prisoner. They celebrate the people I knew and loved and how they lived. These are my memories of Black life in the 1950s and 1960s, and how those of us who left the South took it with us and kept it."
There's a conversational element to this memoir that makes you feel like Winfred is sitting in front of you, telling you his story personally. I appreciated that element, but did find it disjointing at times. But the real beauty in this book comes from the artwork sprinkled throughout his narrative. I spent most of the time listening to the audio and looking over his art -- such a powerful way to "hear" his story.
If you're looking for a compelling read about the Black experience, you need this book. Rembert tells his story not only through the written word, but through his art as well, with an unwavering commitment to being open and honest, no matter how ugly and harsh the truth.
There's a conversational element to this memoir that makes you feel like Winfred is sitting in front of you, telling you his story personally. I appreciated that element, but did find it disjointing at times. But the real beauty in this book comes from the artwork sprinkled throughout his narrative. I spent most of the time listening to the audio and looking over his art -- such a powerful way to "hear" his story.
If you're looking for a compelling read about the Black experience, you need this book. Rembert tells his story not only through the written word, but through his art as well, with an unwavering commitment to being open and honest, no matter how ugly and harsh the truth.
February 19, 2024
I am a firm believer in that reading History, it always can make us more aware. I feel even more strongly that we have to look back to see what needs to be different going forward. Winfred Rembert's memoir does just that. I have not been moved by a book like this in a long time.
People study Rembert. He worked the fields of Georgia as a child, joined the Civil Rights movement as a teen, survived a near lynching and seven years on the chain gang, and turned to art in his 50s.I was deeply moved by the loyalty and strong support that his wife, Patsy provided. She was so loving and encouraging of Winfred to revisit his traumatic past & his art.
His writing is vivid, confrontational, revelatory and complex. You can not pick this book up and not walk away without being moved.
People study Rembert. He worked the fields of Georgia as a child, joined the Civil Rights movement as a teen, survived a near lynching and seven years on the chain gang, and turned to art in his 50s.I was deeply moved by the loyalty and strong support that his wife, Patsy provided. She was so loving and encouraging of Winfred to revisit his traumatic past & his art.
His writing is vivid, confrontational, revelatory and complex. You can not pick this book up and not walk away without being moved.
November 26, 2021
Rembert grew up working as a field hand on a Georgia plantation, later embraced the Civil Rights Movement, endured political violence, survived a lynching, and spent seven years on a prison chain gang. Years later at age 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 recounts these experiences in stark, vivid prose and stunning images.
March 12, 2023
This book is in a class of its own as it records an oral history through writing and the artist / orator's work. It is poignant and jubilant despite also describing some of the most violent acts individuals can perpetrate against others. To witness Rembert's experiences through his art is astonishing and to get a glimpse into the power of the bond between he and his wife, Patsy, is even more striking. Highly recommend.
August 7, 2022
There aren't enough stars available to rate this book. A moving and profound story of Rembert's life in the Jim Crow South. Kudos to the publisher as well. It's a beautiful book to read which includes photos of Mr. Rembert's incredible art. I've often been disappointed by Pulitzer Prize winning books- not this one. It deserves all the accolades!
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