From prison chain gang to art world notoriety, the life and work of Winfred Rembert

The artist Winfred Rembert died in 2021. Born in Cuthbert, Georgia in 1945, his work has been compared to the art of Jacob Lawrence and Horace Pippin. Unlike them, he honed his skills in prison. Rembert came from a family of field laborers. He got involved in civil rights work as a teen and was arrested after fleeing a demonstration. He survived a near lynching at the hands of law enforcement and spent seven years on chain gangs.

Rembert, who always affirmed he had been unjustly tried and imprisoned, told his story in Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South. As the title suggests, the trauma he experienced never left him. For instance, he went through periods where he couldn’t sleep next to his wife Patsy, for fear of hurting her as he lashed out in his sleep. Nonetheless, Rembert was able to channel his creativity into a lasting artistic legacy.

Winfred Rembert’s story is just one example of the inhumanity and prejudice that plague our justice and incarceration systems, but it’s a visceral one. These reflections on his life will likely give any listener an uncomfortable sense of the fear and trauma he endured. It may also give you a deep appreciation for the remarkable courage and wisdom he displayed in forging a path forward, beyond the demons that haunted him.

“Rembert's art expresses the legacy of slavery, the trauma of lynching, and the anguish of racial hierarchy and white supremacy while illuminating a resolve to fight oppression and injustice. He has the ability to reveal truths about the human struggle that are transcendent, to evoke an understanding of human dignity that is broad and universal.” ―Bryan Stevenson.

Tufts University philosophy professor Erin Kelly co-authored Rembert’s memoir. She is joined here by Rembert’s widow Patsy, and actor Dion Graham, who moderates the conversation and reads excerpts from Chasing Me to My Grave. Graham calls the event a celebration of and a musing on Rembert’s life.

The Elliott Bay Book Company presented this event on January 18, 2022. Elliot Bay’s Rick Simonson introduced the program. You can watch the event here.

Please note: This recording contains unedited language and themes of an adult nature.

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