Saturday, November 22, 2008

"RaceDay" Poet A Slam Dunk With Fans


This season, we talked a lot about the various aspects of NASCAR TV, but some TDP readers wanted to know a bit more about the resident poet of NASCAR. After all, he got a lot of exposure this season with poetry previews of each Sprint Cup Series race for SPEED's RaceDay.

Boris "Bluz" Rogers has been quietly expanding the world of "poetry slams" beyond his native Charlotte, NC for the past six years. For those of you who may need to have your memory refreshed about his TV role, just click on the link below.

Here is the You Tube video of the Talladega slam.

The following excerpt is from a Charlotte Observer story about Rogers that ran earlier this year:

Boris Rogers didn't always dream of being a poet. His high school English teacher encouraged him to write down his feelings, told him he had talent. He did what she suggested, but he hardly expected to become the next Langston Hughes.

After high school, Rogers majored in communications and journalism at UNC Charlotte. That made sense to him. After all, his teacher had said he had a talent for writing.

Then tragedy struck -- the kind of tragedy that befalls all college students at some point. He laughs. "It's the old story: I met a girl, lost a girl, and that's when the writing really started flowing out."

His first poems were navel-gazers -- "really self-centered and depressing -- that kind of clichéd, `Why is this happening to me?' sort of thing," he says.

That's not the kind of thing the 31-year-old reads and writes today. Rogers, who performs under the pen name Bluz, is an acclaimed slam poet. Last year he ranked No. 13 in the world at the Individual World Poetry Slam contest held in Vancouver, Canada.

He's also the leader -- or "slammaster" -- of the award-winning CharlotteSlam (click here), the local poetry team that took first place in August at the National Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas. As slammaster of the team, Rogers coaches younger poets and hosts a regular poetry event at McGlohon Theatre on the third Friday of each month.


Click here for an easy link to a video of Rogers talking about his poetry style and how it all came to be.

Rogers has worked for many TV networks and production companies. The fact that The NASCAR Media Group brought him into the NASCAR world is a strong testament to the production values of that group. The results were fun to watch.

As we head into the 2009 season we will make a better effort to keep tabs on Mr. Rogers and his unique brand of NASCAR poetry. Thanks once again to the TDP readers who asked us to follow-up on his story.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Just click on the comments button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Click here for a link to PoetCD.com, which has several of Rogers' CD's for sale.

71 comments:

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Anonymous said...

JD--

Thanks for this coluimn. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed the man's performances each week.

Perhaps I'm not as critical about the nuances of poetry. I simply liked listening to him.

Anonymous said...

Oops, "column."

By the way, I hope Bluz is back next year.

Daly Planet Editor said...

The rules for posting at TDP are on the right side of the main page.

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by.

JD

Anonymous said...

BLUZ is one of the best poets!!! I am sooo proud of him!! This is great!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for finding out about him :). He definitely is enjoyable to listen to! I look forward to him working the races again next year :).

Newracefan said...

I have very much enjoyed the slam poetry (now that I know what it's called). It's a different way to enjoy Nascar and good for Raceday and NMG for finding him.

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Daly Planet Editor said...

Anon 8:38PM,

Drop me an email at editor@thedalyplanet.tv when you have a moment and I will explain the rules for posting which are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks.

JD

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Daly Planet Editor said...

For those of you just stopping by TDP for the first time, we are a little bit different than many blogs.

Our simple rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. We feature NASCAR TV and some media stories and try to keep our focus on those areas.

If there is every a question about a column, story or comment just use the email link on the main page and your question will be answered promptly. Thanks.

JD

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Anonymous said...

At first I will admit it, I thought who is he & whats he doing? By the Dega slam (ok now I know what its called) I was listening carefully & it was quite good. By then I was wondering who is he? Thanks JD for answering the question & finding out who he is. It was driving me nuts.

I hope he is back next year.

Tracy D said...

It's great that any form of poetry is finding an audience anywhere. That it's being received well by Nascar fans is super. Many congratulation to the team who found Bluz and hired him.

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Anonymous said...

If you want to see a talented slam poet, go to YouTube and look up Mums The Schemer (he used to be featured on the HBO series OZ). Now that is a talented slam poet. Comparing him to Bluz is like comparing Richard Petty to David Stremme.

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Daly Planet Editor said...

Anon 4:46PM,

I looked around You Tube and there are some amazing performances. I was hoping that some of Bluz other work for Raycom and ESPN would be posted, but no suck luck.

JD

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The Loose Wheel said...

Im curious about his NASCAR background? Is he a new fan or was a fan growing up?

Something that has irked me with the explosive growth of the sport into mainstream markets in the last 5-9 years has been the sentiment of people jumping on the wagon as a "fad" or being involved with the sport to fulfill a personal goal in furthering themselves.

Such can be said with grand marshals and acts they bring in to sing the anthem.

Sounds trivial but its something I am curious about.

As others have stated I found his style to be interesting, I doubt anyone has heard a pre-race intro like his before and it was a fairly good addition to RaceDay.

Beats ESPN playing last man standing repeatedly and trying to work it in at every turn of a corner.

If he were to come back in an expanded role next season it wouldn't bother me at all.

Daly Planet Editor said...

David,

Kind of amazing after "Back in the Saddle Again" and "Let's Go Racin' Boys" that folks would be upset about one poem in a pre-race show.

As far as I know, he was brought in by the RaceDay producer who is also based in Charlotte and is a NASCAR Media Group employee.

Rogers has worked for lots of companies and several TV networks including ESPN.

I like the fact he was there every single week before a Sprint Cup race to put out a new poem while the NASCAR Media Group used their exclusive footage to show what he was talking about.

Overall, it was quite a bold step for NMG and it worked.

JD

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The Loose Wheel said...

Thanks JD for the info.

I dont mind him at all, and major credit for having something new every week. I'd just like to know more about his NASCAR background if its existent. But kudos to him for doing a solid job throughout the chase.

What are we going to do for the next 70 days till speedweeks start?

I came up with a genius idea of how to make the shootout a reward to teams instead of just an exhibition race lol.

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Daly Planet Editor said...

David,

It should be interesting to see what role Rogers has for next season on RaceDay.

Needless to say, this has been one of the more interesting posts in recent memories.

JD

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The Loose Wheel said...

If he replaced Rutledge it wouldnt hurt my feelings any lol.

Cranky Girl said...

JD,
I'm new to your site. I found you on From The Marbles' blog roll. I have enjoyed your work. I just want to thank you for providing some background information and insight to the this talented slam poet. I didn't know Mr. Rogers' name before reading your column and now I look forward to following his future endeavors. I also hope to see him back on Race Day.

tom in dayton said...

Mr. D:
I first saw Rogers when I attended a UD/UNC Charlotte bb game. I was very suprised when I next saw him on SPEED! A bit unusual, but his poems added to the intro to the race. As a veteran of many of Humpy's spectacles prerace at Charlotte/Lowes, I'm always of the belief that anything goes before they drop the green flag!
I like him and I hope he's retained for future broadcasts!
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

This was a very enjoyable addition to RaceDay. I would bet that ESPN will try to counter with something in '09.

Anonymous said...

This is the price I pay for not caring much for KW and JS. I skip Race Day because by the time they get on they are usually rehashing old news. Sound like the slam poet is something I would like. I guess I'll have to give them a shot in February to see if they bring him back.

Also, JD thanks for not putting up with any BS. You have a first-class site that is required daily reading for me and we don't need no stinkin' antagonists!

Lisa Hogan said...

While I normally had Raceday on my TV, I wasn’t sitting in front of the TV the entire two hours. I caught pieces of the poet’s performances.

Although this is not a style that I particularly enjoy, I am glad that Raceday has included a variety within the two hours so that more viewers are served.

Anonymous said...

Thanks JD.
I love Bluz's slam poetry and it fits perfectly with the tennor and elan of NASCAR. A huge thank you to whomever it was at SPEED, et al for allowing a wider audiance to appreciate his work. I lookforward to hearing more next year. And he's cute too! ;)

And thanks to you for running this down and providing links for the more internet challanged among us