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Sherard "Shekeese" Duvall

@shekeesesmd

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Founder/CEO @otrmediagrp + Shekeese Tha Beast
TV/Film Producer | Media Literacy Educator | Strategy Consultant | Your Favorite DJ's Favorite DJ

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October 10 is World Mental Health Day, and we’re spending that morning discussing the things most of us reach for before we get our day started.

We’re welcoming Sherard Shekeese Duvall of OTR Media Group to lead a men’s session with his practical approach to media literacy and screen usage. Whether your screen of choice is the TV at home or the phone in your hand. Then we sit and talk honestly about our own habits.

Saturday, October 10 · 9:00–11:00 AM · We’ll be in Lower Richland with 25 seats available. You can scan the QR code, use the link in the SPACE bio or the one in the comments below.

If there’s a male friend or family member in your life who could use this, send him this post. by @shekeesesmd

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6 days ago

At @otrmediagrp our job is to create work that connects with the human on the other side of the screen, reflecting the shared pain, joy, and lived reality of real people. I tell our clients all the time that you want to invite your customers to participate in a shared cultural reality. It shifts the relationship from transactional to relational.

You can't just check a demographic box (40 year old white mom of two, 27 year old latino young professional, etc.), you have to earn a person's trust.

In 2025 we worked with @motheremanuel_ame_official to produce a short documentary about the Senior Ministry and to honor slain ministry members Ethal Lance and Susie Jackson. We learned how this 65 and older group of men and women have continued to meet weekly since the tragedy 11 years ago, and have grown. Their bond and faith has only deepened their love for each other and their love for humanity.

But Emanuel was very protective of the narrative. Working with Kay Hightower and Pastor Eric Manning closely with the story was the only way we could go deeper and make something meaningful that people could feel and connected to.

I’m proud to share that the film, Ephesians 4:32 just received its first official film festival selection. It will be screening at the @afrosouth_sc Film Festival on October 10th in Charleston, SC—the first of several festival screenings planned over the coming year.

At its core, Culturally Intelligent Media is having the genuine empathy, confidence, and respect to connect across cultural lines and tell stories that elevate us all.

Thank you to the team at OTR, Kay Hightower, Pastor Eric Manning, and the Senior Ministry of Mother Emanuel for trusting us with this story.

If you happen to be in Charleston on October 10th, come check out the screening—I’ll see you there.

Ephesians 4:32 - The Senior Ministry of Mother Emanuel

Dir: Shekeese Duvall
Prod: @sun.torres
DP: @adriancwill
PA/Grip: @soloventurer by @shekeesesmd

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6 days ago

I have this “unique” intersection as a TV/Film Producer, Media Literacy Educator, and DJ. Most of you know me as Shekeese, but few of you remember “Shekeese Tha Beast.”

Recently, I have been thinking about how my radio and club years prepared me for what I do now.

My many years as a DJ trained me to see up close what really resonates with people. I’ve always told folks that the mark of a good DJ isn’t playing the right music, it’s playing the right music, at the right time, for the right crowd.

Fun fact, I never pre-programmed what I would play when I spun.

Ever.

Didn't matter if the crowd was young, old, white, black, a college party or at a night club. Whether I was doing the “20 Minute Workout” or a USC Alumni Event, I approached it all the same way.

My speciality was reading the crowd - scanning the audience to perceive whether or not what I was playing at that time was working, and then pivoting in real-time to keep people moving.

I learned later in life that what folks really loved about what I did was called “programming” - this is in reference to when and in what order you would play a selection of songs. In fact, the first person to use that word “programming” to describe what I did was @hot1039sc radio personality and Assistant Program Director @get2knowneek

For @otrmediagrp , this translates to helping businesses find the right language and tone to engage their target market authentically. Our approach is really just us ”reading a room” culturally.

Cultural Intelligent Media is the framework we use to step into an entirely unfamiliar cultural environment, read the room, adapt to that room, and build authentic connections with that room, without relying on stereotypes - or pre-determined instructions.

So, when you think about it. I’m kinda still “djing” in that way today.

Shout out to @djkingpinvov and @djlivoutloud for a grand time this past Saturday and letting me take the #ShekeeseThaBeast cape out the glass case one more time. And, shout out to @black_nerd_mafia_ and @onecolumbia for platforming me and all of these incredible artists "play" for the good folks of Columbia.

I had a ball!

#ShekeeseThaBeast taken in Ensor-Keenan House by @shekeesesmd

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13 days ago

I say the battle was a draw and the real winners was everyone in the crowd! @shekeesesmd @djkingpinvov and @djlivoutloud took us back to the origins 2(4) turntables and a mic! Shekeese was on crowd control while Liv and Kingpin took us on a journey through Hip Hop from the beginning to the present, they set the event off proper 🫡 and made sure the vibes were on point all night, everyone was dancing from the ol heads to the babies! This is how Legends get down, if you see their name on anything be there 🙌🏿 #hiphopisalive #respectthedj

📸: @perrymcleod taken in Keenan House by @shekeesesmd

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17 days ago

Whattup friends, family, fans...

Lots happening this Saturday in the City of Columbia.

@historiccolumbia Jubilee Festival is back, it's FREE and its a whole lotta fun for the whole family in the daytime.

Saturday evening I'll be gently taking my #ShekeeseThaBeast cape out of the glass case that evening to join @djkingpinvov @djlivoutloud @iampatx @beenmilah @black_nerd_mafia_ and @onecolumbia for the #AlchemyofArt Live Hip-Hop event.

Click on anybody them tags to find out more.

Won't you join me?

@otrmediagrp #culturallyintelligentmedia taken in Columbia, South Carolina by @shekeesesmd

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22 days ago

Whattup friends, family...and fans. Yall good?

Here is an excerpt from the Critical Conversations in Library and Information Science webinar series featuring yours truly.

Full video in the comments in my bio.

Shout out to all of the attendees and the beautiful and thoughtful questions in the Q&A.

Thank you to @nicolethelibrarian for letting me run my mouth and I am so grateful to be a small part of all of the incredible work you are doing at @uofsc

#culturallyintelligentmedia @otrmediagrp by @shekeesesmd

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At @otrmediagrp , we believe Screen Language learning is the way to save humanity in the Age of Screens.

It's practical. Its a method you can use everyday. In real time.

If media literacy is self-defense, then learning the language of screens is how we protect ourselves in the Age of Screens.

Thank you. Dr. Keisa Gunby and the Mass Comm students at @benedict_college for letting me add a little seasoning to your Media Literacy lesson this morning!

#culturallyintelligentmedia
photo credit: Dr. Keisa Gunby taken in Benedict College by @shekeesesmd

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Here about Shekeese's take on culturally intelligent media literacy on 9/3/26, 12pm EST!
https://nicolethelibrarian.substack.com/p/the-2026-critical-conversations-in taken in University of South Carolina School of Information Science by @shekeesesmd

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a month ago

Yo, I have beef with the vast majority of Media Literacy Education.

I feel like my beef is justified. It's too much theory and not enough real time practical use.

I believe language learning is the way. It's practical. You can use it everyday.

I have a special talk coming up where I get to run my mouth about all of this.

On Thursday, September 3rd, I’ve been invited by @nicolethelibrarian to speak to the @uofsc’s School of Information Science. This webinars series features speakers that explore Library Information Science (LIS), critical cultural studies, and how people navigate disinformation and trust in society.

I’ll be introducing them to a media literacy concept we’ve been refining at @otrmediagrp : The Screen Language Model.

And, shout out to the incomporable @mbkoeth for this photo. My mom hates it, but I think it is absolutely magnificent. Lol.

The link is in my bio ya'll.

#culturallyintelligentmedia by @shekeesesmd

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a month ago

@msssplnt live, breathe and teach Hiphop #fyp #podcast #jermlifesc #hiphop by @shekeesesmd

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@otrmediagrp is a global leader in Culturally Intelligent Media.

I did not have this language back in 2010 when I spent two days with the Carolina Renaissance Festival folks in Huntersville, NC scouting for a National TV campaign I was producing for Colonial Life. Looking at that photo above, I definitely stuck out like a sore thumb.

So, what the hell does "Cultural Intelligence" even mean?

I think the why, is more important than the what.

Think about how outsiders usually portray the South—or any community outside of major media hubs.
It’s almost always one of two extremes: either slow, backward, and living in "lack," or treated strictly like a historical relic—as if Gullah Geechee folk ain't still living and breathing and walking around in 2026.

I always felt the picture an outsider painted of the South was insufficient. Or more accurately…incomplete.

So I started asking myself a fundamental question: How do you get to know a place and its people?

In 2003, Researchers Christopher Earley and Soon Ang's framework proved why most organizational campaigns fail when trying to cross cultural boundaries:

They rely entirely on Cognitive CQ—memorizing facts, demographics, and surface data.

Real connection requires Behavioral CQ—the ability to actually adapt your outward behavior, language, and actions so the other group feels genuinely safe and seen.

My point is, you gotta get in the mix with the community you are trying to reach. You have to understand what is happening in their everyday lives from the inside out, not the outside in.

That is the measurable scientific framework that we have applied to our work @otrmediagrp

And that is #culturallyintelligentmedia taken in Huntersville, North Carolina by @shekeesesmd

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2 months ago

Let me cook.

Who actually owns the platforms of your favorite podcasts and content creators?

What is the oldest profession? Does that make sense? Am I being insensitive?

#culturallyintelligentmedia #warriormindsetpod @crawfish @otrmediagrp taken in SOCO - For Creators by @shekeesesmd

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