RED APPLE

Red Apple presents a lively shop in Cuthbert. In Chasing Me to My Grave, Winfred Rembert vividly describes the shops and cafes on Hamilton Avenue that he would frequent. These included juke joints, such as The Dirty Spoon Cafe, that he liked for the dancing. He remembers, “We would go all around, every which way, dancing. Juke joint to juke joint, all over town. People would put money in the jukebox when they saw us coming in the door because they wanted to see us dance.” (Winfred Rembert, Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South (New York, 2021), p. 57). As a teenager, he would buy cola and milkshakes at these cafes. Here, Rembert illustrates a busy café with advertisements posted for the same activities and refreshments previously mentioned. Out front, we see figures lounging on the porch, idling in the grass, or making their way inside to enjoy all the café has to offer. There are apparent differences in the dress of these figures. In the foreground, a woman matches her long blue dress with a fancy hat, while another figure wears a full black suit and matching hat. In contrast, there are shirtless figures, one of them shoeless as well. Although a fond memory from Cuthbert, Rembert does not gloss over the poverty many residents experienced.