Welcome to the SammyBammy Blog
I'm Samira Issa, the creative founder and activist behind SammyBammy.
I grew up between South Side Jamaica, Queens and Brooklyn. Two neighborhoods, two different rhythms, but both of them shaped how I see the world. Early on, I was exposed to different expressions of art and visual storytelling, the kind you find on walls, on corners, in the way a block tells you its history if you're paying attention. That exposure never left me.
I started SammyBammy in 2020, in the middle of everything. What drove me wasn't a business plan, it was passion. I saw a gap in activism and social commentary, and I saw art that could have been a catalyst instead sitting quiet. Fashion had every reason to speak up, and it wasn't. I wanted to build something different: not just clothing, but a voice. Art that carries social commentary instead of avoiding it, made by someone who couldn't imagine doing it any other way.
Before SammyBammy was a brand, I was already doing the work. I co-facilitated a youth art program at Graham Windham in Harlem alongside the late Rob Ayala of Fantasy in Color, teaching kids that their voice and their art mattered, long before I fully understood that the same lesson applied to me. Looking back, I don't think I chose SammyBammy. It chose me, before I even knew it was happening.
SammyBammy is an online brand created by Gen Z founder Samira Issa at the intersection of fashion and fine art. Every piece — from wearable protest imagery to designs rooted in the deed theft crisis and cultural resistance — is made for people who carry culture loudly. The dream audience is Teyana Taylor, Amanda Seales, Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Kendrick, and people who have shown interest in culture, art, activism, and being unapologetically themselves. Beyond the clothing lives a community called Signed by Samira Issa, where subscribers get exclusive access to drops, behind-the-scenes process, newsletters, and insider moments the outside world simply doesn't see. SammyBammy also operates a service model working with nonprofits and local organizations to help them design merchandise and build a stronger brand footprint.
This blog exists because clothes alone can't hold everything. It's the cultural commentary, the personal essays, the stories behind the stitches, written for Black and brown patrons of the arts who know that creativity has always been resistance. SammyBammy is in an exciting new chapter right now: a full rebrand, a first photoshoot, and elevated merchandise that reflects where the brand is headed. This space is where you follow that journey from the inside.