Khalik White spends his shifts guarding Philadelphia's City Hall, but it's what he does on his breaks that has people talking. For years, White has used that downtime to sketch, filling pages with lines and figures that eventually caught the eye of a city councilmember passing through the building's northwest entrance. In October, those sketches became something bigger: his first art show, titled “A World of Lines.”
The turning point came in 2025, when Councilmember Rue Landau walked into work through City Hall's northwest entrance and noticed White sketching, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Landau and White had both started their City Hall tenures in 2024 — she as a councilmember, he as a security contractor. Once Landau learned more about his drawings, she gave him a set of colored pencils, a small gesture that nudged his work forward.
From there, the Inquirer reports that Barbara Kigozi, director of special operations in Landau's office, and Lauren Rinaldi, Landau's art liaison, asked White whether he had more work at home. The two women ended up organizing a showcase of his art. Kigozi described White as an artist with depth, according to the same report.
From Skateboards to Sketchbooks
White has never taken a formal drawing class. Instead, he credits his childhood love of skateboarding with shaping his creative instincts, telling the Inquirer that skateboarding saved him. He began drawing and posting his work on Instagram in 2022, and he has cited artist Laurie Lipton's pencil drawings as an inspiration, per the Inquirer's reporting. White has also said that people online once called him the “worst artist,” a label he has since left behind.
A native of East Orange, New Jersey, White moved to Philadelphia nine years ago and now lives near Tioga. His path to City Hall wasn't a straight line. The Inquirer reports that he overcame housing insecurity and alcoholism, and he credits the recovery house Ready, Willing, and Able with helping him get back on his feet during his sobriety journey. He found work as a City Hall security contractor in 2024.
White's health history shaped him in other ways, too. He had his thyroid removed in 2015, which affected the timbre of his voice, and the Inquirer notes he lost his vocal range after booking a few small voice-acting roles. Drawing became a different outlet — one built on lines rather than sound.
Art Born From Recovery and the Streets
White says he draws inspiration from people in recovery and the coping mechanisms they use to stay sober, as well as from Philadelphia's unhoused population. He has described his art as a commentary on society, with his pieces addressing what the Inquirer calls the pressures, tensions, and complications of the world. One drawing, titled “Untitled,” depicts a pill bottle surrounded by diverging black-and-white pathways and lines — a piece Landau reportedly favored among his work.
White has summed up his motivation simply: “This is for everybody who said I can't draw a straight line.” That line captures both the show's title, “A World of Lines,” and the journey behind it, from anonymous break-time sketches to a public exhibit celebrating his art.
A Book Cover and What Comes Next
White's next project is already lined up. He is set to illustrate the book cover for Rayshawn A. Johnson Jr., a City Hall legislative director and aspiring science fiction novelist, according to the Inquirer's reporting. It's another sign that the sketches once confined to break time are finding an audience well beyond City Hall's hallways.
City Hall itself has a built-in home for art beyond White's story. According to Creative Philadelphia, the agency invites the city's cultural organizations to propose exhibitions for its City Hall Art Gallery or display cases, though it notes that its Art in City Hall program does not present solo exhibitions and instead encourages groups to select enough artists to fill all the spaces. Creative Philadelphia says City Hall holds 12 display cases spread across its second, third, fourth, and fifth floors — a reminder of just how many creative stories move through the same building where White has spent his breaks quietly sketching his way into a new chapter.
