Shebani Rao is an artist, writer, and researcher in Philadelphia.
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 criminalized.
A piece created for an employer about the criminalization of 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 common city codes that implicitly criminalize homelessness.
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.”
I use creative visuals to make complicated public services more accessible and efficient.
From a research presentation I did at the City of Philadelphia, about how to make an effective benefits access tool for residents.
A map of existing benefits access efforts I created as part of a research project at the City of Philadelphia.
An image I created for an employer that summarized the takeaways of a focus group with unhoused men.
As Racial Equity Manager at the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Criminal Justice, I worked to bring down the jail population and racial disparities in incarceration. I created a visual, interactive training to educate local government and community partners about how our criminal legal system was intentionally built over decades - so we could better understand how to start shrinking it. These images are from my training.
A slide about how the growth in prosecutor fueled mass incarceration in the 1990s.
A slide about wealth inequality post-WWII.
A slide about key local and national events during the civil rights era.
A slide about growing police brutality, white flight, and segregation in Philly in the 1970s.
A slide about the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia.
A slide about how Democrats embraced a “tough-on-crime” stance in the 1990s.
