Odd?Rod
Gig Seeker Pro

Odd?Rod

| SELF

| SELF
Band Spoken Word Singer/Songwriter

Calendar

Music

Press


"Jacksonville poet Odd?Rod mines his troubled life for Inspiration"

Odd?Rod’s ride is a sexy sleek 1971 Pontiac LeMans convertible, all leather inside and sparkling burnt orange outside, riding high on matching orange 22-inch rims. When he puts the top down and the music up, everything is made right in his world.
That car. That’s what Odd?Rod feels like. It’s a metal and chrome symbol of the success he’s made of himself, clawing up from poverty with hard work, fine words and a bunch of angels on his side.
The thing is, Odd?Rod also feels like the car that the LeMans used to be, a raggedy, faded junker that no one believed could be made new, made glorious.
“My poetry money bought that car, and my working money, too,” he said. “That car doesn’t forget where it came from.”
Neither does Roderick Borisade, aka Odd?Rod — a name he took as a teen to illustrate how different he felt from others, a shy kid with few friends, unfashionable clothes, roaches in the fridge, and a dream to escape all that by making up rhymes. The question mark in the name only emphasized that feeling.
He wrote poems, writing what he knew: Growing up in Jacksonville, with an mother addicted to crack and cocaine. The death of his older brother, who died from a brain tumor when he was just 16. His thoughts of suicide, of giving in. His chance to go to college on a full scholarship. The women in his life. Making himself a poet.
Success has come — in many ways.
His mother is off drugs. And he was reunited with his father; after growing up as Roderick Harvey, he even took his father’s last name, Borisade.
He got a college degree from the University of North Florida. He bought a townhouse near the school. He’s worked as a longshoreman at the port since he was 18, making good money. And people are listening to him tell his poems, live, on college campuses in towns far from Jacksonville’s streets.
They’re even paying him, good money, and want him back. He booked his first college tour in October. Now he’s taking a three-month furlough from his longshoreman job to concentrate on touring; he left Friday for gigs at 10 colleges up north. In February he heads out again to make the rounds at various Penn State campuses.
“I marveled at the hills of Pennsylvania and upstate New York,” he said. “I’d never known of Utica or Ithaca or Morrisville. I never knew of these places.”
On stage, telling his poems, he feels like that sleek LeMans, up in its big rims.
But stick with him long enough, and doubts — that raggedy LeMans — creep in. He turned 29 in December, and worries he’s getting too old for the college circuit. And what would he do without the people who believe in him? Those troubling thoughts would creep in: “Maybe I’m not as good as I think I am.”

We’re caterpillars of the future, never growing our wings — “Pretend”

Borisade was 6 or so when he came to his mother and said, “Ma, I’m a man.” No, you’re not, she said — you’re a boy. “No,” he said. “I feel like I’m a man in a little boy’s body.”
That’s the way he was as a kid, Patricia Harvey says: serious, ambitious. He even cried in second grade when he got a B instead of an A.
She has been clean of drugs for six years this month, she says. Her son frequently writes about her struggles in his poems, and she’s OK with that.
“I’m not ashamed of what he writes, even though when I read his stuff, I cry,” she said. “The wounds are very fresh. It hurts. I feel his pain, what he went through, having a mom out there like that. I didn’t know what was in my baby’s heart.”
Her family lived at the Beaches for a while in the 1990s, but when she couldn’t care for her children they found refuge with their grandparents, John Harvey and the late Lessie Harvey.
Living in their neat house, just a few blocks off Moncrief Road in Northwest Jacksonville, Borisade learned about discipline. His grandparents made him get up in the early morning, a habit he still can’t break. They made him pay rent, even when he was still in high school at Raines. It taught him a lesson, he says: Nothing will be given to you.
He didn’t fit in at school, but he did well enough to get a Delores Pass Kesler Scholarship, a full ride at UNF. He’s proud of that and has a UNF license plate frame on his everyday car, a considerably more mundane Chevrolet.
Without that discipline, where would he be? “Either dead or in jail or selling drugs,” he said. “There’s a lot of kids in this neighborhood who didn’t have that structure. We saw some of them die.”

Batman would watch over Gotham/Well God was with me I suppose — “Pumpkin Pie”

He was 13 when everything changed. His brother, Eric, died of brain cancer, and Borisade was consumed with thoughts of suicide. That same year, 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur died, but not before his words inspired Roderick. He wrote his first poem, “Suicide Door” and though the subject was grim, it somehow made him feel better.
He also got a job, hanging and sanding drywall, walking on stilts. Tough work, but somehow it suited the new Odd?Rod name he took on.
Ther - Florida Times Union


"Jacksonville poet Odd?Rod mines his troubled life for Inspiration"

Odd?Rod’s ride is a sexy sleek 1971 Pontiac LeMans convertible, all leather inside and sparkling burnt orange outside, riding high on matching orange 22-inch rims. When he puts the top down and the music up, everything is made right in his world.
That car. That’s what Odd?Rod feels like. It’s a metal and chrome symbol of the success he’s made of himself, clawing up from poverty with hard work, fine words and a bunch of angels on his side.
The thing is, Odd?Rod also feels like the car that the LeMans used to be, a raggedy, faded junker that no one believed could be made new, made glorious.
“My poetry money bought that car, and my working money, too,” he said. “That car doesn’t forget where it came from.”
Neither does Roderick Borisade, aka Odd?Rod — a name he took as a teen to illustrate how different he felt from others, a shy kid with few friends, unfashionable clothes, roaches in the fridge, and a dream to escape all that by making up rhymes. The question mark in the name only emphasized that feeling.
He wrote poems, writing what he knew: Growing up in Jacksonville, with an mother addicted to crack and cocaine. The death of his older brother, who died from a brain tumor when he was just 16. His thoughts of suicide, of giving in. His chance to go to college on a full scholarship. The women in his life. Making himself a poet.
Success has come — in many ways.
His mother is off drugs. And he was reunited with his father; after growing up as Roderick Harvey, he even took his father’s last name, Borisade.
He got a college degree from the University of North Florida. He bought a townhouse near the school. He’s worked as a longshoreman at the port since he was 18, making good money. And people are listening to him tell his poems, live, on college campuses in towns far from Jacksonville’s streets.
They’re even paying him, good money, and want him back. He booked his first college tour in October. Now he’s taking a three-month furlough from his longshoreman job to concentrate on touring; he left Friday for gigs at 10 colleges up north. In February he heads out again to make the rounds at various Penn State campuses.
“I marveled at the hills of Pennsylvania and upstate New York,” he said. “I’d never known of Utica or Ithaca or Morrisville. I never knew of these places.”
On stage, telling his poems, he feels like that sleek LeMans, up in its big rims.
But stick with him long enough, and doubts — that raggedy LeMans — creep in. He turned 29 in December, and worries he’s getting too old for the college circuit. And what would he do without the people who believe in him? Those troubling thoughts would creep in: “Maybe I’m not as good as I think I am.”

We’re caterpillars of the future, never growing our wings — “Pretend”

Borisade was 6 or so when he came to his mother and said, “Ma, I’m a man.” No, you’re not, she said — you’re a boy. “No,” he said. “I feel like I’m a man in a little boy’s body.”
That’s the way he was as a kid, Patricia Harvey says: serious, ambitious. He even cried in second grade when he got a B instead of an A.
She has been clean of drugs for six years this month, she says. Her son frequently writes about her struggles in his poems, and she’s OK with that.
“I’m not ashamed of what he writes, even though when I read his stuff, I cry,” she said. “The wounds are very fresh. It hurts. I feel his pain, what he went through, having a mom out there like that. I didn’t know what was in my baby’s heart.”
Her family lived at the Beaches for a while in the 1990s, but when she couldn’t care for her children they found refuge with their grandparents, John Harvey and the late Lessie Harvey.
Living in their neat house, just a few blocks off Moncrief Road in Northwest Jacksonville, Borisade learned about discipline. His grandparents made him get up in the early morning, a habit he still can’t break. They made him pay rent, even when he was still in high school at Raines. It taught him a lesson, he says: Nothing will be given to you.
He didn’t fit in at school, but he did well enough to get a Delores Pass Kesler Scholarship, a full ride at UNF. He’s proud of that and has a UNF license plate frame on his everyday car, a considerably more mundane Chevrolet.
Without that discipline, where would he be? “Either dead or in jail or selling drugs,” he said. “There’s a lot of kids in this neighborhood who didn’t have that structure. We saw some of them die.”

Batman would watch over Gotham/Well God was with me I suppose — “Pumpkin Pie”

He was 13 when everything changed. His brother, Eric, died of brain cancer, and Borisade was consumed with thoughts of suicide. That same year, 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur died, but not before his words inspired Roderick. He wrote his first poem, “Suicide Door” and though the subject was grim, it somehow made him feel better.
He also got a job, hanging and sanding drywall, walking on stilts. Tough work, but somehow it suited the new Odd?Rod name he took on.
Ther - Florida Times Union


"Odd?Rod helps bring national convention to Jacksonville"

A national convention in March is going to bring more than 1,000 entertainers and entertainment bookers to downtown Jacksonville — and for that, give lots of credit to Roderick Borisade, or Odd?Rod, the Jacksonville poet featured in the Times-Union Saturday.

That's according to Eric Lambert, executive director of the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities. For the last 10 years, the group has held its national convention in Atlanta, but this year it's coming to the downtown Hyatt March 14-18.

"Honestly, I don't think it would have been in Jacksonville if it weren't for Rod," said Lambert. "We were never going to move. It's just that Odd convinced us this was the place to go."

The convention will attract people who book entertainment for colleges, as well as those who book for military installations, casinos, cruise ships and clubs, Lambert said. Then there are the entertainers who attend conferences on how to succeed. Some are booked to appear on stage to impress the buyers.

"A lot of the entertainment industry comes to this to try to find live entertainment that's just about to break to the next level," he said.

Borisade, who's now touring colleges in the Northeast, met Lambert at previous APCA conferences. I'd tried to reach Lambert for my story, but he was out of town and returned the call on Monday and filled me in on the convention.

"Odd?Rod was the guy who sat down and talked me into it," he said. "It was a really hard sell for me but Odd?Rod convinced us that this was the place to be. He said we're progressive, we're trying to build our downtown, we're reaching out. Rod's a great representative for the city — he really talked me into it, him and your new mayor, the fact that he's trying to build the downtown."

APCA has eight regional conferences a year, but the national event is by far the biggest. "It's kind of a coup for Jacksonville to get this," Lambert said.

Registration is still open for entertainers and talent bookers. For info call 800-681-5031 or go to www.apca.com. - Florida Times Union


"Odd?Rod helps bring national convention to Jacksonville"

A national convention in March is going to bring more than 1,000 entertainers and entertainment bookers to downtown Jacksonville — and for that, give lots of credit to Roderick Borisade, or Odd?Rod, the Jacksonville poet featured in the Times-Union Saturday.

That's according to Eric Lambert, executive director of the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities. For the last 10 years, the group has held its national convention in Atlanta, but this year it's coming to the downtown Hyatt March 14-18.

"Honestly, I don't think it would have been in Jacksonville if it weren't for Rod," said Lambert. "We were never going to move. It's just that Odd convinced us this was the place to go."

The convention will attract people who book entertainment for colleges, as well as those who book for military installations, casinos, cruise ships and clubs, Lambert said. Then there are the entertainers who attend conferences on how to succeed. Some are booked to appear on stage to impress the buyers.

"A lot of the entertainment industry comes to this to try to find live entertainment that's just about to break to the next level," he said.

Borisade, who's now touring colleges in the Northeast, met Lambert at previous APCA conferences. I'd tried to reach Lambert for my story, but he was out of town and returned the call on Monday and filled me in on the convention.

"Odd?Rod was the guy who sat down and talked me into it," he said. "It was a really hard sell for me but Odd?Rod convinced us that this was the place to be. He said we're progressive, we're trying to build our downtown, we're reaching out. Rod's a great representative for the city — he really talked me into it, him and your new mayor, the fact that he's trying to build the downtown."

APCA has eight regional conferences a year, but the national event is by far the biggest. "It's kind of a coup for Jacksonville to get this," Lambert said.

Registration is still open for entertainers and talent bookers. For info call 800-681-5031 or go to www.apca.com. - Florida Times Union


"Getting to Know Odd Rod"

Jacksonville is the largest city in Florida. Residents of this great city and surrounding areas often rep it as "DUVAL" (the name of the county). Even though Jacksonville is large in size and is the home of comedian Lil Duval, it's nightlife is often thought to be a bit lack luster. But Black on Black Rhyme honorary member, Odd Rod, and others such as designer Patrice Ross are working to change that. As a poet, Odd Rod has brought various acts to the city exposing residents to the spoken word circuit and introducing artists to the city. I had the chance to catch up with Odd Rod to talk a bit about his work and inspiration. Check it out.

What inspired you to become a poet?
My upbringing was rough. My mom had been on drugs for most of my life and I never saw my father. My older brother passed of cancer in 1996. He was 16 and I was 13 at the time. Things got worse at home and I became depressed. Tupac passed around the same time and the video for his song "I Ain't Mad at Cha" inspired me to live on. I started writing my feelings in rhyme. I found out later that it was poetry.

The spoken word scene has grown tremendously in the last few years. New poets are emerging constantly. How do you differentiate yourself?
I don't pay much attention to what the scene is looking like. I never came through the route of wanting to be a poet. I take life and write mini-movies from the moments that stand out to me.

Traveling is a major part of working the spoken word circuit. Share with us one of the most memorable moments from your travels.
I performed at Busboys and Poets in DC, and I don't think I got the best welcome from the host. I rocked the crowd with one poem and changed the environment. The story of my life has been opposition. I took what seemed to be negative energy and flipped it. That night was a metaphor for my life.

I started writing my feelings in rhyme. I found out later that it was poetry.


If you could have dinner with your top 3 favorite poets of all time, who would they be?
Tupac Shakur. Wally B. Will Da Real One.

At the end of the year, you are planning to take on poetry full-time. How are you dealing with this transition? Are you excited, nervous…?
I'm excited about it all. I always felt like I had something great to do. I've always pushed hard. I've accomplished every goal I've ever set before myself. I'm nervous about the long-term future of it all. I quickly dismiss the nervousness when I realize God has guided my path this far. I didn't know that I would be here. But I am.

What do you think is the source of your success?
God. My grandma introduced us before she left to join him. He's been holding my hand ever since.

In addition to being a poet, you are also an author. Talk to us about your children’s book.
"Buddy and Bird" is the name of my children's book. It's written by me and illustrated/co-authored by my best friend Aaron Hazouri. We went to college together. It's about two kids from totally separate backgrounds becoming best friends. It's a book about cultural diversity. We try to erase the lines of color with this book. It starts with the kids ya know?!



How did the experience of writing a children’s book differ from writing a poem?
It didn't. I simply wrote my life in that book. Aaron and I are the characters. We met in school. Two different backgrounds...best friends. I grew up meeting different cultures because I was moved around a lot.

Writing is a big part of who you are. What do you love most about words and language?
I love that I can create a visual with words. I can make the blind see. I don't have many hand gestures in my performances because my mouth is painting. Words are awesome to me.

If you could give a piece of advice to a young poet that you wish someone would have told you, what would you say?
Stay yourself. The worst advice I've ever heard were from unsuccessful poets. Everybody wants you to write or sound a certain way but why should you? I excelled in Literature in college but I also learned that poetry was a place that you could break the rules. Who is anybody to enforce rules upon the ruleless? You just have to stay true to yourself and push forward. - SpeakMovement.com


"Getting to Know Odd Rod"

Jacksonville is the largest city in Florida. Residents of this great city and surrounding areas often rep it as "DUVAL" (the name of the county). Even though Jacksonville is large in size and is the home of comedian Lil Duval, it's nightlife is often thought to be a bit lack luster. But Black on Black Rhyme honorary member, Odd Rod, and others such as designer Patrice Ross are working to change that. As a poet, Odd Rod has brought various acts to the city exposing residents to the spoken word circuit and introducing artists to the city. I had the chance to catch up with Odd Rod to talk a bit about his work and inspiration. Check it out.

What inspired you to become a poet?
My upbringing was rough. My mom had been on drugs for most of my life and I never saw my father. My older brother passed of cancer in 1996. He was 16 and I was 13 at the time. Things got worse at home and I became depressed. Tupac passed around the same time and the video for his song "I Ain't Mad at Cha" inspired me to live on. I started writing my feelings in rhyme. I found out later that it was poetry.

The spoken word scene has grown tremendously in the last few years. New poets are emerging constantly. How do you differentiate yourself?
I don't pay much attention to what the scene is looking like. I never came through the route of wanting to be a poet. I take life and write mini-movies from the moments that stand out to me.

Traveling is a major part of working the spoken word circuit. Share with us one of the most memorable moments from your travels.
I performed at Busboys and Poets in DC, and I don't think I got the best welcome from the host. I rocked the crowd with one poem and changed the environment. The story of my life has been opposition. I took what seemed to be negative energy and flipped it. That night was a metaphor for my life.

I started writing my feelings in rhyme. I found out later that it was poetry.


If you could have dinner with your top 3 favorite poets of all time, who would they be?
Tupac Shakur. Wally B. Will Da Real One.

At the end of the year, you are planning to take on poetry full-time. How are you dealing with this transition? Are you excited, nervous…?
I'm excited about it all. I always felt like I had something great to do. I've always pushed hard. I've accomplished every goal I've ever set before myself. I'm nervous about the long-term future of it all. I quickly dismiss the nervousness when I realize God has guided my path this far. I didn't know that I would be here. But I am.

What do you think is the source of your success?
God. My grandma introduced us before she left to join him. He's been holding my hand ever since.

In addition to being a poet, you are also an author. Talk to us about your children’s book.
"Buddy and Bird" is the name of my children's book. It's written by me and illustrated/co-authored by my best friend Aaron Hazouri. We went to college together. It's about two kids from totally separate backgrounds becoming best friends. It's a book about cultural diversity. We try to erase the lines of color with this book. It starts with the kids ya know?!



How did the experience of writing a children’s book differ from writing a poem?
It didn't. I simply wrote my life in that book. Aaron and I are the characters. We met in school. Two different backgrounds...best friends. I grew up meeting different cultures because I was moved around a lot.

Writing is a big part of who you are. What do you love most about words and language?
I love that I can create a visual with words. I can make the blind see. I don't have many hand gestures in my performances because my mouth is painting. Words are awesome to me.

If you could give a piece of advice to a young poet that you wish someone would have told you, what would you say?
Stay yourself. The worst advice I've ever heard were from unsuccessful poets. Everybody wants you to write or sound a certain way but why should you? I excelled in Literature in college but I also learned that poetry was a place that you could break the rules. Who is anybody to enforce rules upon the ruleless? You just have to stay true to yourself and push forward. - SpeakMovement.com


Discography

Chapbooks: Simply Put, Simple Still, Visions thru the P.O.O.R. (Poetry of Odd Rod),

Children's book/iphone App: Buddy and Bird

Albums:
The Art of Plain English
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-art-of-plain-english/id382708425

More Than Just A Poet
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/more-than-just-a-poet/id548763089

Photos

Bio

Born to a drug-addicted mother and an absent father, Rod struggled hard in life during his preteen years. Losing his 16 year old brother Eric in 1996 to brain cancer left him as the head of a house that was falling apart. He began to write his life’s pain in rhyme while listening to Tupac's "I Aint Mad At Ya". He named himself Odd?Rod as he went against the odds avoiding his surroundings of drugs/drug dealing in order to make it to school. He earned a full academic scholarship to the University of North Florida and has been documenting his entire journey in poetry. He landed a 34-school college tour in 2011 from one showcase in Pennsylvania. Now, he's travelled to 58 schools in just 2 years. He's nurtured his talent to give an entertaining life story of how his dark past has awarded him a bright future. He encourages people all over on the importance of education and perseverance along with the beauty of every day life and relationships. He recently went back to Pennsylvania and landed another 22 school tour. He continues to push the boundaries of poetry by having unorthodox performances that entertain the audience.