Because the Milwaukee Bucks’ official DJ and producer, Shawna Nicols — aka DJ Shawna — might relaxation on her laurels and benefit from the soft gigs and partnerships that include thrilling arena-sized crowds.
However that’s not her fashion. As an alternative, the DJ-turned-emerging-entrepreneur is trying to prolong her affect past the sales space, utilizing her rising platform to unfold positivity. It’s all a part of Nicols’ mission to “dare to be.”
The mantra is one thing Nicols’ embraced as she has transitioned out of an expert basketball profession into dwell leisure, and in the present day as she dips her toes into artistic entrepreneurship. The phrase can be behind the identify of her mother or father enterprise, Dare to Be Leisure, underneath which she not solely books DJ performances nationwide, but additionally runs a clothes line, hosts a podcast, and serves as a motivational speaker.
As an athlete for the higher a part of her adolescence, being a constructive function mannequin was one thing the younger participant took severely. When she launched a DJ profession full-time, her need to encourage the folks round her took on even larger significance, particularly as her platform grew alongside the Milwaukee Bucks’ rise to the nationwide championship.
“The factor that you just get taught as an athlete is that as quickly as you place in your jersey, folks have a look at you otherwise,” Nicols advised Technical.ly. “Individuals may know me as DJ Shawna, particularly working with the Bucks. And it’d sound ridiculous to cite Spider-Man’s grandpa, however ‘with nice energy comes nice duty.’ All I need to do is my half to make this world a greater place.”
Nicols grew up in Milwaukee the place she grew to become a star participant at Pius XI Excessive College. After highschool, she was recruited to the College of Wisconsin-Madison to play for the Badgers, however her profession there ended early resulting from repeated concussions. She ultimately bounced again, taking part in for universities in Tennessee and Kentucky, till she landed a spot on a professional workforce abroad.
Alongside the best way, Nicols listened to music consistently and spent her free time making mixtapes to play for her teammates and associates. However DJing wasn’t one thing that ever crossed her thoughts.
When Nicols returned to the States, she was not sure of her subsequent step. Whereas out in town at Walker’s Pint one evening, Nicols — who abstains from consuming alcohol — mentioned she fueled her self-professed social awkwardness by connecting with the bar’s DJ. The remainder is historical past, she mentioned.
“I actually began hanging out with a neighborhood legend DJ Rock Dee [Roderick Schaeffer] and I by no means appeared again,” mentioned Nicols, including that he grew to become a mentor and shut buddy. “It simply continued to snowball.” (Schaeffer died by suicide on the age of 40 in 2008.)
After buying her personal set of ones-and-twos, Nicols navigated an uncharted path into the male-dominated trade. To start with, as she hauled her gear backwards and forwards and spent hours working towards between small gigs, she compelled any negativity that got here with being the uncommon girl DJ out of her thoughts. She centered on breaking her personal mildew — not another person’s.
DJ Shawna. (Courtesy photograph)
She ultimately obtained her huge break. In 2016, she invested in hiring a supervisor and have become the primary official DJ to play for Marquette College, beginning with the ladies’s workforce. Because the college was internet hosting the Huge East event that yr, she obtained to play that, too. And simply weeks earlier than the ladies’s Remaining 4, she cold-called the NCAA and requested if she might DJ. To her shock, they mentioned sure.
That was the identical yr the Milwaukee Bucks got here calling, first for a handful of video games, which ultimately led to an annual contract. She’s been the official DJ and producer for the Milwaukee Bucks ever since.
“I feel that was when my household began me, like it is a job, that is actual,” Nicols mentioned.
For Nicols, DJing grew to become a lifestyle. Through the top of COVID, she was considered one of simply 4 NBA DJs — and the one girl — despatched to dwell within the “quarantine bubble.” Whereas she admits dwelling on the Disney World resort might really feel isolating, it was nonetheless surreal to see the likes of Lebron James using his bike across the grounds and taking part in two NBA video games a day.
However the expertise additionally served as a painful wakeup name: On the top of the Black Lives Matter motion, Milwaukee was experiencing a deep reckoning again house. And taking part in alongside the Milwaukee Bucks, which protested a recreation following the police-involved capturing of Jacob Blake, added a weight that introduced Nicols to a halt. Nicols remembers watching the protection unfold on TV and breaking down in tears behind her masks.
“It doesn’t matter what I used to be going by or how I used to be feeling, I wished to be the most effective I might presumably be and to face up with these unbelievable gamers and assist them in any approach attainable,” Nicols mentioned. “That’s one thing I’ll carry with me for the remainder of my total life.”
As a proud homosexual girl, Nicols additionally wished to make use of her newfound platform to encourage all folks to “present up as themselves.” She adopted the Bucks’ championship sequence by performing on the All-Stars recreation, opening for Lizzo at Summerfest, and headlining Pridefest. Music is likely one of the few issues that deliver folks collectively, she mentioned.
However dwelling by the pandemic additionally shifted her perspective on life after DJing. Nicols mentioned she is aiming to create one thing “larger than herself.” Exterior of standard performances, she volunteers for starvation alleviation causes, raises cash for folks experiencing homelessness, and is slowly easing into music manufacturing, motivational talking, and content material creation as she eyes her function past the sales space.
Final yr, she additionally launched her first unique track, “I Gained’t Give Up.”
“I like taking part in music for folks [because] it brings folks collectively on so many ranges,” Nicols mentioned. “However hopefully I can share my story and it’ll encourage you to take that gentle that you’ve within you and make it larger. My objective is to make this area really feel like all of ours. That’s what retains me going.”
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