![\"Marcella](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-4.10.35-PM.jpg\")
Nicole Moore and Marcella Lowery in Lowery\u2019s Harlem Home. (Mariana De Jes\u00fas-Szendrey\/City Limits)<\/p>\n\u201cCome Into My House,\u201d a new video series, explores how everyday New Yorkers create spaces of belonging, joy, and resilience in their communities. The first installment features Marcella Lowery, who played Elvin\u2019s mother Francine Tibideaux on \u201cThe Cosby Show\u201d and is known locally as the mayor of 116th Street.<\/p>\n
Nicole Moore and Marcella Lowery in Lowery\u2019s Harlem Home. (Mariana De Jes\u00fas-Szendrey\/City Limits)<\/p>\n
In a city where housing insecurity, crime, and gentrification dominate the headlines, how do everyday New Yorkers create spaces of belonging, joy, and resilience?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCome Into My House,\u201d a new video series, explores the answers through intimate profiles of New York City residents who\u2019ve transformed both ordinary and extraordinary spaces into refuges of safety, comfort, and community. <\/p>\n
At a time when the city\u2019s most vulnerable communities face unprecedented challenges and our social systems often fail to provide the resources communities need to survive, \u201cCome Into My House\u201d will reveal how people use culture, spirituality, memory, and creativity to claim sanctuary, center joy, and maintain a sense of self.<\/p>\n
City Limits is launching the series with Marcella Lowery. You may not know her by name, but chances are you know her face, from memorable acting roles that include Elvin\u2019s mother Francine Tibideaux on \u201cThe Cosby Show,\u201d Jamal Jenkins\u2019 grandmother on \u201cGhostwriter,\u201d and Principal Karen Noble on the Saturday morning sitcom \u201cCity Guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Video by Mariana De Jes\u00fas-Szendrey for City Limits. When she wasn\u2019t acting, Lowery\u00a0spends her time quilting, crocheting and making jewelry. Growing up, her grandmother would tell her it\u2019s good to know you can make something with your own hands. This planted a seed early on that having a hobby was more about dignity and self-reliance than it was a simple pastime.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, Lowery\u2019s passion for making jewelry grew, and she turned her dining room into a showroom that became a lively gathering space, attracting people from all over New York City and New Jersey for what she called her \u201cBead Parties.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[Women] get so little time to let our hair down, and be social and feel special. You know, stuff just for us, where there\u2019s [not] a price connected to everything,\u201d Lowery remarked during our interview in her pre-war apartment.<\/p>\n More than just an occasion for women to shop, Lowery\u2019s events feel like an old school Tupperware party at a Black southern family reunion where women\u2014the overwhelming majority of whom are usually Black and brown\u2014can forget about their work, the bills and what to make for dinner and just have fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n To see our interview with Lowery and peep her jewelry and artwork, watch the video above or on City Limits\u2019 YouTube channel here<\/a>. <\/p>\n To reach the editor, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n Want to republish this story? Find City Limits\u2019 reprint policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \tWe want to hear from you!<\/p>\n Take a short anonymous survey to help us deliver content to empower our community.<\/p>\n
What most people may not know:\u00a0this NAACP Image Award nominee has lived in Harlem for almost 40 years, where she\u2019s organized for tenants rights and lent emotional support to many neighbors as they navigated housing court and eviction<\/a>. Coined by many as \u201cThe Mayor of 116th Street,\u201d Lowery can strike up a conversation with the young man stocking shelves at the local bodega just as easily as she can talk about Cabernets with the managers at The Winery. She doesn\u2019t judge a book by its cover. The Texas native is more interested in your personal story and in the footnotes of what gets you out of bed each day.\u00a0<\/p>\n