This exhibition explores law and human rights in the U.S. through poetry. Dicta seeks to educate and inspire the general public in the U.S. to better understand the timelessness of the struggle for human and civil rights, but also the progress made by legal activists.

Harbani Ahuja is a public interest attorney committed to serving marginalized communities and advocating for human rights in all spaces. She has been involved in many legal, policy, legislative, and advocacy efforts, focusing on civil rights, immigrant rights, and public health.

She is currently an Associate Counsel with the Economic Justice Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. Prior to joining the Institute, Harbani served as Senior Legislative Counsel to the New York City Council, where she led and facilitated the legislative process for the Committees on Civil and Human Rights, Immigration, Health, Hospitals, and the Subcommittee on COVID Recovery and Resiliency. She became an ICAAD Artivist-in-Residence in 2021.

Harbani holds a J.D. with a concentration in Constitutional Law and Rights from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a B.B.A from Macaulay Honors College at CUNY Baruch College.

Her Note on systemic flaws in hate crime documentation in the United States and the impact on minority communities was published in Vol. 37 of the Cardozo Law Review. She is admitted to practice law in New York and New Jersey.

Harbani is also a writer who enjoys creating art through various mediums, including graphic design and poetry. Harbani’s creative work can be found in Her Name is Kaur: Sikh Women Write about Love, Courage, and Faith, and on Instagram (@by.bani).

Harbani’s latest project, entitled Dicta, combines her love for the law and poetry, and seeks to unearth the essence of decisions by courts of law in order to illuminate the broader societal context in which they were written.

Watch Harbani speak about Dicta

Dicta in the news:
Artist-attorney uses Supreme Court opinions to create a series of blackout poems, ABA Journal

Meet The Atty Turning High Court Decisions Into Poetry, Law360 Pulse
Poems from the Supreme Court, Legal Talk Network Podcast

Human Rights Center ICAAD Presents Dicta: Legal Activism Through Art and Education, Law.com