Flo Low says there are three things that get her out of bed in the morning.
“The first is my love for the people, the history, the culture and the creativity of Israel,” Low says. “The second is my deep belief that the arts have the capacity to break open hearts and minds and connect people.”
The third thing, “the piece that was missing,” in Low’s words, “was social justice, by which I mean racial justice.”
Low currently lives in Washington D.C. and is the co-founder of BAMAH, a U.S.-based nonprofit that brings artists from Israel to historically Black colleges and universities.
Born in St. Louis, and spending her formative years in Kansas City, Kansas, Low grew up in a progressive Jewish home, going to Jewish day school, Jewish day camp and Jewish youth groups. She studied at Barnard College before moving to Israel, enlisting and serving in the IDF for almost three years.
In 2018, Low moved to DC, to direct the Visiting Artists Program at a local non-profit, which brought artists from Israel to college campuses in the U.S. In 2021, she was challenged by her employer to transform the Visiting Artists program into a independent nonprofit, which became Bamah, stylized in all-caps.
“BAMAH was founded to bring leading artists from Israel to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to serve as a focal point for creating connection between Black and Jewish communities through art and artists from Israel,” Low says.
BAMAH is a Hebrew word that can translate in English to mean a platform or stage. “We are a platform for art and artists from Israel and we put art and artists from Israel center stage in dialogue,” she says.
Low says that her goal is to tell as many stories as possible. “The stories we hear, tell us what is possible in the world,” she says.
Low added that she believes art can be a conduit for creating peaceful coexistence and community.
“What I can do with the arts is not the same as if somebody is hungry and I give them food. I understand Maslow’s pyramid of needs,” Low says. “I want to try and encourage understanding and connection. I think I do so by tapping into this spiritual piece of ourselves which can be cultivated through arts and creativity.”
BAMAH’s signature initiative, its campus residency program, brings artists from Israel to HBCUs for residencies that offer full-credit academic arts courses, funded by private donations to the nonprofit.
“We bring a lot of artists who are not Ashkenazi, or, by American standards, not white,” says Low. “And when a student says — and I’ve heard this multiple times — ‘I didn’t know there were people in Israel that looked like me,’ I know that this work is making a difference. If nothing else, we are showing the complexity of what society in Israel looks like.”
As a part of the program, the artists engage in meaningful conversations inside and outside the Jewish community.
“We recently held an artist event in Flint, Michigan,” Low says. “We put on stage two artists from Israel, two American, non-Jewish artists, and three members of the National Arab orchestra. And they got on the BAMAH, the stage together, and they sang.”
Low says there was no political message. “Their statement was not in words, the music was the message,” she says. “They stood together in Michigan and played beautiful, amazing Jewish Arabic music. They had a shared language through art. That was our message at this moment, more than ever, that we can share a stage, that there’s enough space for all of us. The needle change might have been small, but we put goodness into the world.”
Low is not only an American citizen and a citizen of Israel. She also recently received her Austrian citizenship.
“I’m the descendant of a [Holocaust] survivor and therefore was eligible to claim Austrian citizenship because my grandfather was kicked out of Austria,” Low explained. “As a Jewish person these days, I think you need to have all of your options open. Jewish people throughout history… have understood that we need to be hyper aware of what’s going on around us.”
Despite a rising trend of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment, Low says her organization is expanding, extending beyond bringing artists from Israel to the United States.
According to Low, the organization recently received a donation to support its fellowship program, which creates positions to work within BAMAH for HBCU students and recent graduates.
“Working with students has been so transformative and fulfilling, and I really believe that through that fellowship program, we are also creating lifelong relationships,” Low says. “That personally, for me, Flo Low, gives me a lot of fulfillment and a lot of hope.”
“I can look to the young people that I’m encountering and I see that there’s a place for what we’re doing,” Low adds.
