Through the lens of possibility: May we all be like Sandy Williams
Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review
We join many in heartbreak as we continue to process the tragic and sudden loss of Sandra ‘Sandy’ Williams, a woman whose life and legacy is as instructive as it is inspirational.
As a lecturer, filmmaker, and activist, Sandy’s life work was rooted in liberation. She invested 40 years of organizing in Spokane, Washington, in our neighborhoods, and in us. The warmth and vision she brought to her work at the Pride Center at Eastern Washington University, the Odyssey Youth Center, the Spokane Youth Suicide Prevention Program, and as an HIV/AIDS prevention educator attest to her unrelenting commitment to community care, equity, and social justice.
Sandy was a doer as much as she was a dreamer. Understanding the importance of Black narrative power, Sandy’s creative work in film, video, theater, and radio speaks truth to power about our history, lived experiences, and brilliance. In January 2015, Sandy launched The Black Lens, a monthly publication notably revered by Washington’s Black community and allies as a go-to for shared wisdom and information for us and by us. In a 2019 KREM 2 News interview profiling the fourth anniversary of the publication, she reflected on how intention turned into duty. “When I started out, my idea was to do happy stories about people in Spokane because a lot of the news that focuses on the African-American community is negative,” shared Sandy. “That lasted about five minutes. Because I ended up needing to cover stories that weren’t being covered in other places.” Acting as the founder, editor, and often hand-deliverer of The Black Lens, Sandy amplified our stories, helped mobilize our community, and ignited us to join together and share in the naming of how things are, how things could be, and the work to get there.
The community care Sandy saw in connecting us has been a throughline throughout her life. From her advocacy work on the Washington State Commission on African American Affairs to her sowing as a founding member of the Spokane Community Against Racism (SCAR), Sandy has carried her devotion to community in all that she’s done, created, and left behind. Born of this same devotion to our uplifting is The Carl Maxey Center, Sandra’s latest project, which is to be transformed into an innovative, eco-friendly hub and host for expanded educational, economic, and cultural opportunities historically inaccessible to Spokane’s Black community. We were honored to invest in Sandy’s vision in 2021, awarding the Center with an inaugural We See You grant.
When we reflect on the creativity it takes to imagine a solution and the audacity required to make it real; we’re reminded of the strength of our ancestors who forged possibilities once unnamed and unimaginable. Sandy personified this strength in her anti-oppression work and community building, and we honor her today and always. May we strive to be like her in the solutions we shape, the paths we chart together, and the legacies we leave behind. May we see our liberation work through the lens of joy, possibility, and the same radical love for community that Sandy embodied.
