Carl Hancock Rux

Carl Hancock Rux
Rux in concert, 2018
Born	Carl Stephen Hancock March 24 New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, singer-songwriter, director, actor, performance artist, visual artist, radio host
Literary movement	Afro-Futurism, speculative and dystopian fiction, alternative music
Years active	1989–present
Notable works	Asphalt, Rux Revue, Talk, Pagan Operetta, Good Bread Alley, Apothecary Rx
Notable awards	Alpert Award in the Arts, NYFA Prize, Village Voice Literary prize, Obie Award, Bessie Award
Website
www.carlhancockrux.com

Carl Hancock Rux (/ˈrʌks/) is an American multidisciplinary artist, historian and social activist. The author of a collection of poetry, Pagan Operetta, a novel, Asphalt and the play Talk,^[1] he is also a musician, having recorded several albums, singles, and mixed tapes since the release of his Sony 550 debut, Rux Revue.^[2]

Rux's mixed media works have been included in the Uptown Triennale at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery^[3] Park Avenue Armory^[4] and at the Frieze Art Fair at London's Serpentine Gallery.^[5] Rux also created the lead role in Bernice Johnson Reagon's The Temptation of St. Anthony, directed with set design by Robert Wilson, and costumes by Geoffrey Holder, the first all-African-American opera to premiere at the Paris Opera.

Rux is co-artistic director of Mabou Mines,^[6] associate artistic director at Harlem Stage The Gate House,^[7] resident artist at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts where annually he conceives and stages its campus-wide Juneteenth festival,^[8] multidisciplinary editor at The Massachusetts Review^[9] and the former Head of the MFA Writing for Performance Program at CalArts where he continues to teach.^[10]. Mr. Rux lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Early life[edit]

Born Carl Stephen Hancock in Harlem, New York, Hancock's biological mother, Carol Jean Hancock, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and institutionalized shortly after the illegitimate birth of her firstborn child, Hancock's older brother.^[11] Rux was raised in Harlem by his maternal grandmother, Geneva Hancock (née Rux), who died of acute alcoholism when he was four years old.^[12] Discovered by neighbors surviving on his own with his deceased grandmother, he was eventually taken into the custodial care of his great uncle James Henry Rux and his wife Arsula (née Cottrell), who raised him in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, legally adopting him at the age of 15 and changing his surname to Rux. Estranged from both of his brothers, he would later form a close relationship with his older brother Ralph, the owner of a restaurant in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, for whom he later cared shortly before he succumbed to an AIDS-related illness.^[13] His younger brother, Samuel, adopted separately by great aunts, is a New York City public school teacher in the Bronx,^[14] and their distant cousin, Dr. Shawn Rux,is Deputy Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education.^[15] Carl Hancock Rux is a descendent of Dr. Marcellus Carlyle Rux (1882-1948), former head of the Bluestone Harmony Academic and Industrial School in Keysville Virginia; licensed minister at Rehobeth Baptist Church and former pastor of Mt. Olive at South Boston and Mt. Ellis at Keysville and former Moderator of the Harmony Association, as well as Statistical Secretary of the Baptist Association of Virginia, and principal of the Keysville School, an early Historical Black College and University in Virginia.^[16]

Career[edit]

Theater and Poetry[edit]

While working as a New York City Social Work Trainer, Rux began his artistic career as a playwright and, later, a spoken word and performance artist. Influenced by the Lower East Side poetry and experimental theater scene, Rux worked with artists including Sekou Sundiata, Laurie Carlos, Robbie McCauley, Jane Comfort, and Urban Bush Women, creating work primarily at Performance Space 122), Judson Church, St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, The Kitchen, Threadwaxing Space and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.^[17] He became the curator and co-host (along with founder Miguel Algarin) of the radio show Live From The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which aired for several years on WBAI. Included in the poetry anthology Aloud, Voices From the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, winner of the 1994 American Book Award.^[18] Rux also performed in Europe, West Africa, Indonesia, and Scandinavia as a collaborator with artists including Vernon Reid, Toshi Reagon, Nona Hendryx, Carrie Mae Weems as well as the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and Urban Bush Women. Frequently featured on National Public Radio, the Village Voice named him one of “Eight Writers on the Verge of Impacting the Literary Landscape,” and the New York Times Magazine selected him as “One of Thirty Artists Under the Age of Thirty Most Likely to Influence Culture Over the Next Thirty Years".^[19]

Rux's first book of poetry, Pagan Operetta, received the Village Voice Literary prize^[20] and was featured on the weekly's cover story: "Eight Writers on the Verge of (Impacting) the Literary Landscape." Rux is the author of the novel Asphalt and the author of several plays. His most notable play is the Obie award-winning play Talk (published by TCG), which premiered at the Joseph Papp Public Theater.

Recording Artist[edit]

Discovered by Sony 550 President Polly Anthony, Rux released his debut CD Rux Revue recorded and produced in Los Angeles by the Dust Brothers, Tom Rothrock, and Rob Schnapf.^[21] Rux recorded a follow-up album, Apothecary Rx, selected by French writer Phillippe Robert in the 2008 publication "Great Black Music": a tribute of 110 American albums by African American artists. His third studio CD, Good Bread Alley, was released by Thirsty Ear Records, and his fourth, "Homeostasis" (CD Baby), was released in May 2013. He has also released a mixed tape of a live performance at Joe's Pub, "Anima/Animus".^[22]

Dance, Performance & Performance Art[edit]

Rux has performed throughout Europe, West Africa, Indonesia, and Scandinavia, and written, performed, and or collaborated with numerous artists in the field of dance, including works by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Jane Comfort & Co., Ronald K. Brown's "Evidence", Urban Bush Women, Paz Tanjiquio's "Topaz Arts" dance theater, and in works by choreographers Marlies Yearby, Robert Moses, and others.^[23] He also originated the title role in the folk opera production of The Temptation of St. Anthony, based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, directed by Robert Wilson with book, libretto, and music by Bernice Johnson Reagon and costumes by Geoffrey Holder. The production had its official "world premiere" at the Paris Opera, becoming the first opera composed by an African American woman and performed on its stage since the inauguration of the Académie Nationale de Musique - Théâtre de l'Opéra. The Village Voice described Rux's performance as having "phenomenal charisma and supreme physical expressiveness...(achieving) a near-iconic power, equally evoking El Greco's saints in extremis and images of civil rights protesters besieged by fire hoses."^[24]

Rux's music has been produced in close collaboration with artists including Tony Allen (former musical director for Fela Kuti); British rock musicians Rob Marshall of The Humanists, Belfast-born DJ, and music producer David Holmes; electronica producer Geoff Barrow of Portishead, French-born house music DJ François Kevorkian, Chicago dance music DJ Ron Trent, Japanese house music DJ Yukihiro Fukutomi, and electronic, experimental hip-hop musician, DJ Spooky among others, resulting in an eclectic blend of alternative music covering a wide range of genres.

Radio[edit]

Rux was the host and artistic programming director of the WBAI radio show, Live from The Nuyorican Poets Cafe; contributing correspondent for XM radio's The Bob Edwards Show and frequent guest host on WNYC^[25] as well as NPR. He co-wrote and performed in the national touring production of NPR Presents Water±, directed by Kenny Leon, and was also the co-writer and host of the WNYC documentary "Walt Whitman: Song of Myself", awarded the New York Press Club Journalism Award for Entertainment News, and broadcast annually since 2005.

Activism[edit]

Rux testified in the case of Jonathan 'Demetrius' Norman, a Portland Oregan gang member, rapping under the name of Smurf Luciano, accused of running cocaine for a local drugpin.^[26] During the six-week trial, prosecutors argued that the lyrics to Norman's "No Deal," which included a reference to "packing heat" and criticized Portland's district attorney, were proof that Norman was a criminal. Rux, testifying as an expert witness for the defense, said listeners of hip-hop shouldn't assume that rappers live the lives they rap about, any more than listeners of country music should assume Johnny Cash "shot a man in Reno just to watch him die".^[27] At the end of the trial, the rapper was acquitted of charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics.

Rux has committed himself to raising awareness of child abuse, the need for child protective services, and the importance of understanding socio‐economic contexts concerning drug use, poor living conditions, limited access to education and employment, poor neighborhoods, and housing characteristics which may influence drug‐related behaviors and levels of child abuse.^[28]

Rux joined New Yorkers Against Fracking, organized by singer Natalie Merchant, calling for a fracking ban on natural gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing.^[29]

Rux worked with the Fort Greene Association and New York philanthropist Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel to erect a cultural medallion at the Carlton Avenue home where novelist Richard Wright lived and penned his seminal work, Native Son.^[30]

Awards and Recognition[edit]

Rux is the recipient of a Herb Alpert Award in the Arts and was named a Global Change Maker by Change.Org.^[31] He is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including awards from the Jerome Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York Press Club Journalism Award for Entertainment News, the NYFA Prize, NYFA Gregory Millard Fellow, the Doris Duke Award for New Works, the Doris Duke Charitable Fund, NEA/TCG Artist-in-Residency Fellow, a Camargo Fellowship and a Yale University Hayden Artist in Residence Fellowship.^[32]

Rux's archives are housed at the Billy Rose Theater Division of the New York Public Library, the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution as well as the Film and Video/Theater and Dance Library of the California Institute of the Arts.^[33]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website
• Carl Hancock Rux at the Internet Off-Broadway Database