African-American Artists Create Tribute to Black History Month

African-American Poet Nikki Giovanni and Visual Artist Kadir Nelson have created a tribute to Black History Month with original artwork commissioned by Sears, Roebuck and Co. (NYSE: S) for its commemorative calendar "The Good Life 2005." Sears is proud to celebrate African-American history and culture through an original keepsake calendar distributed to nearly two million customers free of charge at its stores nationwide now through February. Giovanni and Nelson worked together in a unique collaboration to create four poems and four paintings for this year's calendar that depict images and passages of the "good life" of African- American families.

"Every year we look forward to creating a new and meaningful calendar that demonstrates to our customers that we not only value African-American culture, but that we also celebrate it across our entire company," said Joan Chow, vice president of multicultural marketing. "We want all of our customers, employees and the communities that we serve to have an opportunity to celebrate the unique contributions African-Americans have made to art, culture and history."

Sears will host autograph sessions for customers to meet Giovanni and Nelson at select stores in Jackson, Mississippi; Chicago, Illinois; and Richmond, Virginia in late January and early February. These events will be free and open to the public. This year marks the seventh year that the Sears calendars have been created and to date, more than eight million have been distributed nationwide. In years past, the calendar has featured original work from Billy Dee Williams (2004), Christopher M. Thomas (2003), Samuel Akainyah (2002) and Annie Lee (2001).

About Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Sears, Roebuck and Co. ("Sears") is a leading broadline retailer providing merchandise and related services. With revenues in 2004 of $36.1 billion, Sears offers its wide range of home merchandise, apparel and automotive products and services through more than 2,300 Sears-branded and affiliated stores in the U.S. and Canada, which includes approximately 870 full-line and 1,100 specialty stores in the U.S. Sears also offers a variety of merchandise and services through sears.com, landsend.com, and specialty catalogs. Sears is the only retailer where consumers can find each of the Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard and Lands' End brands together -- among the most trusted and preferred brands in the U.S. The company is the largest provider of product repair services with more than 14 million service calls made annually. For more information, visit Sears' website at http://www.sears.com/ .

SOURCE: Sears, Roebuck and Co.

CONTACT: Leslie Short of K.I.M. Media LLC, +1-917-627-6974, or
Jessica Priego of Sears, Roebuck and Co., +1-847-286-0751

Web site: http://www.sears.com/