Top photo by Sara Bennett
Text courtesy of Julie Carson and friends
Nancy Rose Sparrow Bartow, a weaver, dancer, devoted civil rights and community activist, and longtime local resident, passed away at home on Sept. 15. She was 93.
Born in Detroit in 1933, Nancy was the youngest of three born to Scottish and English immigrant parents. She often spoke of her appreciation for her mother's craft and skills, developed out of necessity, as well as her father's habit of inviting strangers in for dinner.
From this foundation came Nancy's practice of radical love and acceptance, which fueled her activism and the energy she brought to friendship and community involvement.
In Detroit, Nancy learned to dance and fell in love with art and music, befriending many in the arts, like painter and drag performer LeRoy Foster.
After graduating from Wayne State University with a degree in movement therapy, Nancy moved to New York City and made the Lower East Side her home for over 70 years.
There, she met and married her first husband, Len Chandler, a folk singer and political activist.
Together they tore it up in the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene with friends, famous and not, in music, the arts, and the civil rights movement. Among the luminaries: Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and James Baldwin.
They attended the Newport Folk Festivals and the 1963 March on Washington, where Len performed; they sailed on Pete Seeger's inaugural month-long voyage aboard the sloop Clearwater in 1969 along the Hudson River to champion environmental awareness, with Pete, Len, and others performing concerts along the way.
After Nancy saw the 2024 film "A Complete Unknown" about Bob Dylan and the early days of folk music in NYC, she remarked it was like watching a home movie of her own life with her just off camera.
Nancy loved to dance, and did so all her life. She danced with Martha Graham, and kept a picture of herself from The Boston Globe dancing in Graham’s groundbreaking tube of stretch jersey.
She was also an accomplished leather artisan, working alongside her longtime friend, Barbara Shaum, in Barbara's East Village leather sandal shop.
She brought her leatherwork to her civil rights activism. She worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi during and after the 1964 Freedom Summer, when hundreds of volunteers came to register Black voters.
In 1965, she founded multiple leather co-ops under SNCC's offshoot, the Poor People's Corporation (PPC), so former sharecroppers and domestic workers could earn a living on their own terms. She designed bags, sourced the materials and equipment, taught the co-op members to sew, and arranged distribution and sales channels like Liberty House, first as a catalog and later stores in New York.
A joyous couple
In 1985, Nancy married her great love, Jim Bartow, a jazz guitarist, composer, and revered teacher at Harlem School of the Arts. They were a joyous couple, with legions of friends.
After he died in 2015, their affection lived on through their cheerful answering machine duet, "You've reached Nancy... and Jim!"
Nancy and Jim loved to dance together, and would push the furniture in their apartment aside to properly dance on any random Tuesday. Whenever music played, they took the floor unabashedly.
More recently, she danced with the Movement Choir, a liturgical dance group at Trinity Episcopal Church, and volunteered with the Dance for Parkinson's Disease group.
A life of always showing up
Nancy was a dedicated volunteer throughout her life. She served on community boards, worked for causes that mattered to her, leafleted for political candidates and causes, read to the blind, and showed up for friends in need.
A piece of art hanging on her wall reads, "We Are Each Other's Business." Nancy lived that in the best way. She didn’t just care; she showed up, she helped, and she made a difference.
Her commitment to community organizing and social change never wavered as she aged. In 1992, she helped launch the Coalition for a District Alternative (CoDA), a progressive organization that recruited and backed grassroots candidates for local office on the Lower East Side and East Village.
She served for many years on Community Board 3, the board of the Gouverneur Gardens housing coop where she lived, and the community advisory board of Gouverneur Hospital.
Her activism continued into her 90s. Her ICE whistle hung by her front door, and she wore it around her neck whenever she left the apartment.
This past March, the New York City Council presented her with an award recognizing her life of service "which is truly the lifeblood of the community and the city." She was honored as an "outstanding citizen, one who is worthy of the esteem of both our community and the great City of New York."
Nancy is survived by her nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews by the dozen, friends, and neighbors.
Nancy was a beloved and inspirational friend to all, entreating us to "every day: move your body, have joy, and have love."
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There's a celebration of life for Nancy Rose Sparrow Bartow this Saturday, Nov. 14, from to 3-to-5 p.m. in the Community Room, 605 Water St. (basement of Building 4, Gouverneur Gardens). All are welcome.
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