Shebani Rao is an artist, writer, and researcher in Philadelphia.
This page is a collection popular social media campaigns that I’ve created - both with other organizations and creators and as an individual artist.
I was approached by progressive content creators to create a series that exposed the absurdity and Islamophobia present in the media’s treatment of then-mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. This viral series was a collaboration with @dear_white_staffers and @creator.congress.
I created this series to shed light on how the Indian-American diaspora is complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
I created this graphic for the Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW)’s year-end fundraising campaign.
I created this image to support a campaign led by an organization that supports Afghan refugees.
I created these images for WhatsApp to reach desi aunties and uncles and contextualize the Black Lives Matter movement in South Asia’s own tradition of liberation. The goal of the series was to reach a generation that is not on social media or well-versed in American racial history and encourage their involvement and financial support.
Some of these images were featured in Michelle Caswell’s book Urgent Archives: Enacting Liberatory Memory Work.
I designed this graphic to advertise a local art market.
I created these social media graphics for a local advocacy organization to convey the horrific conditions in Philadelphia’s women’s jail facilities.
I created this graphic to support a campaign to promote the South Asian American Digital Archives (SAADA)’s new book.
A social media image created for the Philadelphia Bail Fund.
For years, organizers in Philly fought against a billionaire-backed Sixer’s Arena in the heart of Chinatown. I created social media graphics for the No Arena in Chinatown Solidarity Group (NACS) for the No Arena campaign. My goal was to make the research base about arenas accessible, fun, and concrete for Philly residents to get the issue trending. (And we won!)
My work highlights the ways that marginalized groups are surveilled, criminalized, and punished in America.
From a series I created for Community Justice Exchange that summarizes a talk they gave at Allied Media Conference, “From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition.”
From a series I created for Community Justice Exchange that summarizes a talk they gave at Allied Media Conference, “From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition.”
From a series I created for Community Justice Exchange that summarizes a talk they gave at Allied Media Conference, “From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition.”
From a series I created for Community Justice Exchange that summarizes a talk they gave at Allied Media Conference, “From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition.”
From a series I created for Community Justice Exchange that summarizes a talk they gave at Allied Media Conference, “From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition.”
From a series I created for Community Justice Exchange that summarizes a talk they gave at Allied Media Conference, “From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition.”
From a series I created for Community Justice Exchange that summarizes a talk they gave at Allied Media Conference, “From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition.”
From a series I created for Community Justice Exchange that summarizes a talk they gave at Allied Media Conference, “From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition.”
From a series I created for Community Justice Exchange that summarizes a talk they gave at Allied Media Conference, “From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition.”
A piece created for an employer about common city codes that implicitly criminalize homelessness.
A piece created for an employer about the criminalization of homelessness.
A piece created for an employer, based on focus groups with people with lived experience of homelessness.
A piece created for an employer about the criminalization of homelessness.
As Racial Equity Strategist at the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Criminal Justice, I worked to reduce the jail population and racial disparities in incarceration. With input from my colleagues, I created a visual, interactive training for local government and community partners. The training was about how our criminal legal system was intentionally built to punish Black, immigrant, and low-income communities over decades - so we could better understand how to shrink it. This image and the images that follow are from this training.
I use creative visuals to make complicated public services work better for people.
A graphic from a research presentation I did at the City of Philadelphia about how to make an effective benefits access tool.
A map of benefits access efforts I created as part of a research project at the City of Philadelphia.
A graphic I made about how to improve the complaints process in a homeless system of care (COC), created for an employer.
A visual summary of takeaways from a focused group I conducted at a homeless shelter, created for an employer.
I created these comics for an employer to illustrate the complex, emotional process of transitioning from an encampment to housing. These comics are fictional stories based on real interviews with people experiencing homelessness.
I made these comics to bring the research to light and to center the humanity of the people who were interviewed. My intention was also to push back on a simplified or overly positive narrative about homeless outreach.
These are spreads from a report I designed for a project funded by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH). The report is available here.
