Chasing Me to My Grave

An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South

De: Winfred Rembert, Erin I. Kelly, Bryan Stevenson - foreword

Narrado por: Dion Graham, Karen Chilton

Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Biography

“A compelling and important history that this nation desperately needs to hear.” (Bryan Stevenson, New York Times best-selling author of Just Mercy and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative)

Winfred Rembert grew up in a family of Georgia field laborers and joined the civil rights movement as a teenager. He was arrested after fleeing a demonstration, later survived a near-lynching at the hands of law enforcement, and spent the next seven years on chain gangs.

During that time he met the undaunted Patsy, who would become his wife. Years later, at the age of 51 and with Patsy’s encouragement, he started drawing and painting scenes from his youth using leather tooling skills he learned in prison.

Chasing Me to My Grave presents Rembert’s breathtaking body of work alongside his story, as told to Tufts Philosopher Erin I. Kelly. Rembert calls forth vibrant scenes of Black life on Cuthbert, Georgia’s Hamilton Avenue, where he first glimpsed the possibility of a life outside the cotton field. As he pays tribute, exuberant and heartfelt, to Cuthbert’s Black community and the people, including his wife, Patsy, who helped him to find the courage to revisit a traumatic past, Rembert brings to life the promise and the danger of civil rights protest, the brutalities of incarceration, his search for his mother’s love, and the epic bond he found with Patsy.

Vivid, confrontational, revelatory, and complex, Chasing Me to My Grave is a searing memoir in prose and paintings that celebrates Black life and summons listeners to confront painful and urgent realities at the heart of American history and society.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Winfred Rembert and Erin I. Kelly (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Powerful

Winner of 2022 Pulitzer Prize in biography. Extraordinarily powerful. The author recounts his personal history in the Jim Crow south. Eye-opening to many whites except, of course, those of us who perpetuated the evils inflicted on Blacks throughout the United States.

A rich rendering of a poor man’s life

The love that still stayed in the writer’s heqrt, even after a life consistant of struggle after struggle, & the self respect he rétains.

The Ending is the Beginning

The track are HARD TO FIND. when your searching for your mother's love?
Beautifully written.

One of the best non fiction books I’ve ever read

Be prepared to cry because you will you’ll also laugh and enjoy. This story is from I I time when I was alive. But growing up middle class in NewEngland I never understood what it really meant. Big difference from seeing a few shots on the news than hearing about first hand from someone who lived through that time. I think (hope) I’m a slightly better person for listening

Couldnt put this down, I had to keep listening

I loved this book, the vocals are on point and emotional, the story itself is beautiful, real, raw, and fully encompassed all sides of Winfred, both good and bad. I really care about his success and can relate to some of the pain he feels. it's a must read/listen.

Everyone should read.

Wonderful story, heart wrenching and eye opening. It's just hard to fathom that these kinds of atrocities were allowed to happen, not that long ago. The 1960's were in my lifetime!

Chasing Me to My Grave

What a spectacular memoir with stellar narration. Listening to this audiobook was like hearing the life experience firsthand of the man who lived through it, plus one chapter told from the viewpoint of his wife. The composition of the storytelling is so well put together and the language feels authentic. While I’ve got a few decades under my belt, I haven’t been around as long as Winfred Rembert, nor do I share anything at all similar to his life experience, but I find it immensely relatable the way he reminisces about the good parts of an “old fashioned life” and gently admonishes today’s youth for their lack of awareness of and appreciation for what’s come before, such as the civil rights movement of the 60’s. This book was rewarding and I’m so glad I listened to it on audio. Fortunately, I was able to reference the written version also and see the photos and artwork included there that are missed by those who only access the audiobook.

Winfred

Wonderful, meaningful, unforgettable.
So glad to meet this man through his words and art… google his art as you listen

Amazing story, amazing man. Will listen to again

I love everything about this book. I heard of Rembert from Antiques Road Show abd that he had a book, and it fit beautifully in my ongoing education of the Black experience in America. I only wish I could purchase some of his art at some point, a print would never do. Just a fantastic story from a fantastic man. I am so thankful he wrote this book. I am a very particular person when it comes to narrators, and Graham did a great job. I will listen to this again at some point.

Story well told

It was a story I didn’t want to hear and wished that I didn’t believe. It should be heard by many.