Business owner and content producer Shawneé (pronounced Shaw-nay)Owens says she’s always felt supported in the artistic space, beginning as a student of the historic Hillside High School theatre while she was there. "Special" is the way she says she felt when she walked those hallowed halls. “It was a place where people from all walks of life could perform,” said the 2014 legacy Hornet graduate whose sister is also a graduate and her father coached there.
Owens’ origin journey through Durham Public Schools began at Pearsontown Elementary School. She then attended Rogers-Herr Middle, and high school at Hillside. She said elementary and middle school gave her a well-rounded experience, and she was lucky enough to attend schools that had highly engaged and enthusiastic teachers to support her learning.
“I had a great experience throughout DPS,” she said. Owens saw firsthand that it was a safe space for everyone.
“I feel as though through elementary and middle, it was a well-rounded community of people that literally grew up together,” she said.
Owens said she was allowed the space to build her production experience as a high school student, thanks to her theatre director Wendell Tabb.
“Mr. Tabb would bring people in to build out sets, make costumes and raise money. He would make opportunities available. He was a champion for us. I felt a lot of pride being at Hillside and an overwhelming amount of support specifically from teachers. Principal (Dr. William) Logan was a very active and involved leader, and I was in Theta Phi Delta where Jokyra Bullock helped us as young women build our confidence and character while also doing consistent community service. I had a home at high school.”
Owens was enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program at Hillside and was required to submit a video project before being accepted.
“It was a drag for a lot of people but I was so excited about it because it gave me my first opportunity,” she said. “I took the project very seriously, and the final film was called Ami I Perfect Yet: Society’s Perception of Beauty, which explored how media affects men and women’s perception of beauty. I actually credit my introduction to film-making and loving to Durham Public Schools,” she said.
It was during her junior year that she began thinking about a career. Some of her peers were Lauren E. Banks, who is now a successful Actor, and “who inspired me to think I could,” said Owens.
After graduation, she matriculated to Howard University and pursued acting. She leaned more into her directing interest as well, enjoying having her say in how the projects turned out and playing an important role in the type of characters one would see on the screen. Directing, she said, gave her the opportunity to build a foundation in marketing, design, content, and production. She also booked productions while in college.
Owens apprenticed after graduating from Howard, exploring production and digital marketing with a non-profit that traveled nationwide. “That process of trying and doing is what helped me get to where I was destined,” she said.
The Howard graduate is now a content producer in the travel and digital marketing space.
“It’s such a full circle moment now,” she said. “My instinct as a child is what I grew to love as an adult career-wise.”
Owens now owns a travel business and marketing agency that caters to content creators and producers. As a digital content producer, she hires photographers and videographers who produce projects. She also works with brands and businesses to produce content on their behalf, and leads projects in Accra, Ghana and Bali, Indonesia as an official partnership and international content director.
“Traveling to Africa allowed me to see my history face-to-face, and truly understand why it's so important to show up with our best to leave a mark in some way, to show up for our unborn. You have to first see it, do it, and then you have to try. While I haven’t seen everything I want to see yet, the travel will inform me of so many other things I don’t know yet. What we do in this life is important,” said Owens, who believes in the three e’s of life: exposure, experience, and execution. “Opportunities come by way of my skills and being able to create content for them. I’m blessed to be able to operate in my career path in this way. It’s important for me to have the opportunity to travel to be able to work with people who support my culture and Black people in a positive way,"
“I’m blessed to do what I love and to share my experience with others,” said Owens. “It’s a never-ending journey.”
Her travel business and marketing agency is a community for creatives looking to work together, invest in themselves and build their careers in the content marketing space around the world -- funneling resources, advice, conversation, and tools to people needing them.
“The best products market themselves,” said Owens, who shares the following advice to those who wish to pursue entrepreneurial adventures
“Anything that you are doing is important and intentional, whether pushing you toward or away from something. Your aim is to push in a forward direction. If something’s not working out, take the time to find out why. There’s no such thing as backtracking. Progress is subjective.
Every day presents a new opportunity to do something and learn from what you’ve done.”
Owens encourages herself as well as others as she reaches for greater heights as a business owner.
“I want to create content that leaves a lasting impression, that captures a moment so well that you can go back to it months later, influence people to take action, and allow others to see something they’ve never seen before and want to have it for themselves,” she said. “God has given me a vision and I want to try and honor that.”
She also has a book in development in honor of her grandmother’s impact and legacy entitled, 50 Rules of Life The Grandma Should Have Taught You.
Owens continues to strive and achieve, which is the message she shares with her much younger peers at Hillside who are on track to graduate.
Never give up, she says.
“You’re doing such an amazing job and you’re on track. It’s all going to work out and you will live a beautiful life in the next 10 years. Whether or not you feel as though you know what or who you want to be, you’re doing a good job. It’s a beautiful long journey that we’re on. Do not stress.”