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Shebani Rao

@shebanimal

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Philly comic artist and writer and occasional food person!
Please credit @shebanimal if you share images.

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Obligatory photoshoot with my banner! Thank you @southstreetphilly 😍 swipe for when I really did eat too much at @southstreetsouvlaki by @shebanimal

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15 days ago

🎨 Art as Resistance. Laughter as Power.

Meet Shebani Rao ( @shebanimal ) , the artist turning comics, satire, and food into tools for justice.

✨ Shebani is a Philly-based artist, researcher, and organizer using comics and satire to expose the absurdities of oppression — and to dream up freer futures.

Through her art, Shebani tackles race, identity, inequality, and mental health with humor and heart, making complex truths accessible and unforgettable. Her comic on Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay’s collaboration with Black activists is currently featured in The New York Sari exhibit at the New York Historical Society.

Recently, Shebani performed her satirical piece “DEI, Bitch” at Acts of Resistance, a fundraiser for Gaza held at Vox Populi/Hall Pass in Philly — blending sharp critique with care, and art with action.

From fighting mass incarceration to organizing against displacement, Shebani reminds us that storytelling is solidarity work — and that laughter can be resistance, too.

🍛 This December, she’ll be teaching a cooking class at the Philadelphia Free Library’s Culinary Literacy Center in partnership with the Philadelphia Folklore Project, continuing her work to build community through food, care, and cultural connection.

#OurSouthAsianFuture #SouthAsianArtists #PhillyCreators #ComicsForChange #StorytellingAsResistance #FoodIsCommunity #ArtAsActivism by @shebanimal

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a year ago

❤️❤️ by @shebanimal

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3 years ago

Another #rejectedfromthenewyorker 😂 @will_burtyshmurty made this joke way better by @shebanimal

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10 hours ago

I spent the weekend painting sweet baby Chikoo in his favorite chair. He was so precious, I still can’t believe he was real and he was ours. Love you and miss you forever buddy. by @shebanimal

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5 days ago

And if you so much as suggest it’s pmdd, you’re toast! #pmdd by @shebanimal

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10 days ago

Guys is this right????? #taylorswift #comicartists by @shebanimal

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22 days ago

#rejectedfromthenewyorker (naturally) 😂 by @shebanimal

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23 days ago

Want to better understand the crisis of homelessness in America? We made this site for you! Me and my bud @realwillearley analyzed HUD’s publicly available homelessness data and made an illustrated, scrolling site to share the big findings. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Homelessness data is often very technical, so we sought to make it accessible. It’s so important to understand this crisis, especially now as the administration unleashes war on unhoused and poor folks. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This was a labor of love that brought together my passions in data analysis, illustration, storytelling. I’d be thrilled if you looked at it on a desktop! Link in bio - thanks for checking it out ❤️
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#dataanalysis #datavisualization #dataviz #comicartist #homelessness by @shebanimal

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25 days ago

#rejectedfromthenewyorker by @shebanimal

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a month ago

Everyone knows a task force doesn’t do anything @cherelleparkerphilly. We need a moratorium on data centers in Philly! @nodatacentersinphilly (this is an old cartoon but it continues to be relevant) by @shebanimal

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a month ago

Thanks for the love on my zine, “Just Quit Your PhD”!! I’m so glad so many people found it relatable ❤️ here are some more snippets! (The last frame is the diploma I imagined but never got lol) read it at the link in my bio! #phd #academia #quitting by @shebanimal

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a month ago