SANDRA LOWE

LOWE--Sandra Joyce. Born on August 9, 1942, Sandra Joyce Lowe (nee Rodriquez) grew up in Greenwich Village. Her mother, Rose (nee Lishnoff) was a shop steward for the Garment Workers Union, her father, Julius Rodriequez, also a tailor, fought in the Spanish Civil War with the Lincoln Brigade. Sandy was Black, Jewish, Cuban, Chinese and she was brilliant. It was difficult in those days to be what she described herself as, "just a regular Jewish girl of color," and she had a tough childhood. When the civil rights movement began she jumped right in, working with CORE as a teenager and continuing to protest for civil rights and the anti-war movement through the 60s when she met and married Alan Lowe, eventually moving to California where she had her first child, Gabrielle, and she learned the craft of weaving. They moved back to NYC in the early '70s, where she had her second child, Django, and she opened a weaving and fabric arts store Threadbare Unlimited, first on Cornelia Street and later on Bleecker. When the shop closed she got a job at National Congress of Neighborhood Women, working with survivors of domestic violence. Around this time she became part of an informal group of women artists of color that included the renowned visual artists Carole Byard, Valerie Maynard, the writer and scholar Alexis Duval, and Madeline Yayodele of Women of the Calabash. One day on the A train, she met the internationally recognized human rights attorney and civil rights leader Haywood Burns. The two struck up a conversation, and Burns recruited her, then and there, to go back to school at 38 to City College for her college degree, where Burns was then Director of the Urban Legal Studies and later at CUNY LAW School where she was a member of the second graduating class. She continued her career in civil rights, now as an attorney. She started at the highly regarded Philadelphia Defenders Association as a criminal defense attorney, returning to NYC when she was recruited to join Lambda Legal Defense Fund as associate attorney, representing Joe Stephen in his suit against the military after he was discharged for being gay. She then served as Governor Mario Cuomo's Liaison to Gay and Lesbian Concerns. She also sat on the Board of GMHC. She joined Housing Works as co-executive director. She then served with Community Access as Deputy Director for Program Services and Community Relations Manager. She retired in 2016 after 21 years at Community Access. Throughout her career, Sandy was recognized with numerous accolades. Sandy died at home on Friday, October 24, 2025. She leaves behind two children, Gabrielle and Django, and three Grandchildren, Kieran, Ezra and Silas. And so many chosen family and friends. All of whom she touched with her activist spirit and her joie de vivre. She will be sorely missed.