About the mural: Summary

Winfred Rembert was one of America's great artists and chroniclers of life in the Jim Crow South. Despite the adversity he survived, he built a life in New Haven defined by art, community, and love. At his wife Patsy's encouragement, he began depicting stories from his life in tooled and painted leather. His memoir, Chasing Me to My Grave, won the Pulitzer Prize. Rembert lived just a block from Lincoln-Bassett Community School, where Site Projects commissioned artist Katro Storm, a longtime friend and mentee of Rembert's, to paint a mural celebrating Winfred and Patsy.

Winfred and Patsy Rembert

Winfred and Patsy Rembert grew up in Georgia. Winfred survived a near-lynching and seven years on a chain gang, which is where he met Patsy. They married upon his release, and they ultimately made their home in New Haven. He was in his fifties when Patsy urged him to tell his story in the medium he had learned in prison: hand-tooled, painted leather. He never believed he had the talent, he later said that she kept insisting he did.

Winfred’s artworks include vivid, patterned scenes of cotton fields, swimming, juke joints, chain gangs, ball games, church, and even playgrounds. They brought him international recognition, and his work is held by the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Yale University Art Gallery. Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South, told to Erin I. Kelly, won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, a year after his death.

He lived a block from Lincoln-Bassett School. He visited the school to talk with students about his life and work, and donated a monumental leather piece that still hangs in the entryway. In the neighborhood, Winfred is famous for his toy collection, amassed in search of a childhood he couldn’t have the first time around, for cakes he ornately decorated for kids’ birthdays, and as a fierce cheerleader at basketball games. 

For more, watch Ashes to Ashes, a New Yorker documentary short, or read Chasing Me to My Grave. 

The Mural & Artist, Katro Storm

Katro Storm has roots in Newhallville and has spent decades painting portraits of people from Black history, culture, and Katro’s own life. His portraits are recognizable by his distinctive and varied mark-making. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts and at ECA in New Haven, and has exhibited at Howard University, Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, and the Ely Center.

Storm taught art at Lincoln-Bassett through the ConnCAT afterschool program, and spent many hours on Rembert's Newhall Street front porch talking about art and life. He calls Winfred a friend and mentor. 

The Rembert mural begins ten feet above the ground on the exterior wall beside the Lincoln-Bassett playground. It portrays Winfred and Patsy Rembert together: a portrait not just of an artist but of a partnership. Storm sees it as a celebration of Black love, excellence, and community, and a tribute to his friend.

When Patsy Rembert first saw Storm's concept, her eyes filled with tears. "That's it!" she said. When asked if any words came to mind, she said, “never give up.”

Storm was assisted by Rembert's son Mitch Rembert, also an artist, and Cecil Boyce.