Issa Ibrahim is an artist, musician, author and filmmaker living and working in Queens, New York.
Insanity Plea Patient Out on Parole.
Chocolate Child of the Nuclear Age.
Black Bohemian Man Out of Time.
Raised from a living death in Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, Issa Ibrahim could be anybody. And he is you, or someone you know, who has run afoul of “The System” and fallen through the cracks of society. Same old story…why should you care? Maybe because there’s a bright and shiny rainbow at the end, and doesn’t everyone like happy endings?
Issa Ibrahim has been reborn. He has come into full bloom creatively while living under the most psychologically restrictive conditions. In 2016 Chicago Review Press published The Hospital Always Wins: A Memoir detailing his experiences in a broken mental health system including spending 20-years in an asylum following a horrific family tragedy.
Artist, Author, Musician, Filmmaker.
Above all a Survivor.
Like a soul entombed, Issa has come forth with tall tales of death, using humor, bite, toothpicks and bubblegum. Chronicling the various ghouls, grave robbers, maggots, witches and spirits that drifted through him in his quest to understand himself. Released from bondage, Issa re-experiences life decades later, like Rip Van Winkle or Captain America…except twice as hard cuz he’s black.
Come explore the nether regions of the soul with Issa Ibrahim...It just may re-kindle your will to live.
One fan raves-
“You take the raw materials of your existence and experiences and transmute them in art, music and a profound glimpse into realms others may not have been fortunate enough to see without your guidance.”
Current and Upcoming Shows
1.9.2025
BIFF! BAM! POW!
curated by Marina Marchand
Fountain House Gallery
702 9th Ave. N.Y.C.
Spotlight
Artworks featured in current exhibition
BIFF! BAM! POW! at Fountain House Gallery
Published from Routledge Press: MAD STUDIES READER
Interdisciplinary Innovations in Mental Health
The last few years have brought increased writings from activists, artists, scholars, and concerned clinicians that cast a critical and constructive eye on psychiatry, mental health care, and the cultural relations of mental difference. With particular focus on accounts of lived experience and readings that cover issues of epistemic and social injustice in mental health discourse, the Mad Studies Reader brings together voices that advance anti-sanist approaches to scholarship, practice, art, and activism in this realm.
This collection will be of interest to mental health clinicians; students and scholars of the arts, humanities and social sciences; and anyone who has been affected by mental difference, directly or indirectly, who is curious to explore new perspectives.
Issa has contributed a short, modern ghost story about asylums, Bob Dylan, and what Woody Guthrie left behind in Creedmoor Psychiatric Center.
Featured in the opening chapter Innovative Artists:
Woody Guthrie’s Brain
by Issa Ibrahim
“Ibrahim uses creative nonfiction to give us a surprising window into one of the most notorious aspects of our social responses to mental difference- the creation of asylums to confine those deemed “too other” to function in the normate world.”
Read story here
Click on image to order book
New Album Coming Christmas Day!
With my old 16-track recorder now disabled and unusable, and after years of prodding from long-time admirers and encouragement from many, I end my 7 year hiatus with songs to soothe The Savage Breast. I decided to enhance my toolbox with sophisticated recording software. For me it was still just about getting a good take and tracking but made much easier with many more interesting sounds to incorporate and experiment with. I rediscovered joy and I remembered how much I loved making music and recording. Here’s to phase two! Check out the lead single “White Trash In The Ghetto”.