Carl Hancock Rux
Carl Hancock Rux is an American poet, playwright, singer-songwriter, novelist, and essayist, as well as an installation artist working in diverse multimedia. His work includes sound and image installation, photography, and performative lectures. He is the author of a collection of poetry, Pagan Operetta; a novel, Asphalt; and the play Talk. Rux has been published as a contributing writer in numerous journals, catalogs, anthologies, and magazines, including Interview magazine, Essence magazine, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Iké Udé's aRude Magazine, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art and American Theatre, among others. Rux's writings and monographs on visual art include essays on the work of conceptual artist Glenn Ligon ; the introduction for Nick Cave’s Until; and the Guggenheim Museum’s Carrie Mae Weems retrospective.
Rux is also a singer-songwriter who has recorded several albums, singles, and mixed tapes since the release of his Sony 550 cd, Rux Revue. He has collaborated with and appeared on several projects by a wide range of artists including DJ Spooky, Jeff Mills and former Fela Kuti musical director, Tony Allen ; as well as British musicians trip-hop composer Geoff Barrow of Portishead, David Holmes and industrial rock guitarist Rob Marshall. His cross-genre collaborations also extend to jazz, having worked with Leroy Jenkins, Brian Jackson, Craig Harris, Deidre Murray, Cooper-Moore, Matthew Shipp, James Brandon Lewis, Gerald Clayton, Randy Weston, Mal Waldron, Marvin Sewell, Etienne Charles, Matthew Garrison, and Lonnie Plaxico among others.
Trained as a visual artist, Rux's mixed media works have been included in the Uptown Triennale at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery; as well as Park Avenue Armory. He is a recurrent collaborator with artist Carrie Mae Weems on several of her live performance exhibitions, presented at the Spoleto Festival USA, Yale Repertory Theater, London's Serpentine Gallery, the Frieze Art Fair, the Kennedy Center and other venues.
Rux has held faculty positions at notable institutions including Brown University, The New School for Social Research, Yale University, The University of Iowa and is the former Head of the MFA Writing for Performance Program at CalArts.
Rux is co-artistic director of Mabou Mines, resident artist at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts where annually he conceives and stages its campus-wide Juneteenth festival, multidisciplinary editor at The Massachusetts Review., and the former associate artistic director at Harlem Stage The Gate House,.
Early life
Born Carl Stephen Hancock in East Harlem, Rux's mother, Carol Jean Hancock, was an unwed teenager when she was diagnosed with schizophrenia shortly after the birth of her first child . While institutionalized in a state-operated long-stay psychiatric hospital for adults with extreme mental health disorders, doctors discovered Rux's mother had once again become pregnant. Due to the severity of her illness, his mother was unable to give anyone information regarding Rux's conception or the identity of his biological fatherRux was immediately taken into custody by his grandmother, a divorcee, who lived in a one-bedroom East Harlem pre-war tenement apartment in which she had grown up and, at various times, shared with four younger siblings, her ex-husband, two daughters, and four grandchildren. When Rux was still a toddler, police officers discovered Rux alone in the apartment with his grandmother's corpse, already in the early stages of decomposition. Her death was subsequently attributed to cirrhosis of the liver due to acute alcohol poisoning.
Transferred to Foster Care, Rux lived with several families before he eventually became the ward of his granduncle, James Henry Rux, a furrier and decorated World War II veteran, and his wife Arsula Rux. The couple legally adopted him at the age of 15 and changed his name to Carl S. Hancock Rux, raising him in the Highbridge section of the Bronx.
Career
Poetry
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. He became the curator and co-host of the radio show Live From The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which aired for several years on WBAI; and is featured in the poetry anthology Aloud, Voices From the Nuyorican Poets Cafe,.Rux's first book of poetry, Pagan Operetta, received the Village Voice Literary prize and was featured on the weekly's cover story: "Eight Writers on the Verge of 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, which premiered at the Joseph Papp Public Theater.
File:96023 ca object representations media 99387 bamlarge.jpg|thumb|Isabelle Huppert, Isabella Rossellini and Carl Hancock Rux after their appearance in Hey Joe... directed by Robert Wilson for Joe Melillo at Brooklyn Academy of Music afterparty
Dance, Performance Art & Theater
Rux has 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, Marlies Yearby's Movin' Spirits Dance Theatre, Robert Moses Kin, and others. 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... a near-iconic power, equally evoking El Greco's saints in extremis and images of civil rights protesters besieged by fire hoses." His plays include the Obie award-winning play Talk ; Song of Sad Young Men ; Smoke Lilies and Jade ; No Black Male Show, and many others. Rux has also performed throughout Europe, West Africa, and Southeast Asia as a solo artist as well as a collaborator with artists including Vernon Reid, Toshi Reagon, Nona Hendryx, Carrie Mae Weems, the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and Urban Bush Women.Radio
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 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.Recording Artist
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. 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", was released in May 2013. He has also released a mixed tape of a live performance at Joe's Pub, "Anima/Animus". Rux's music has been produced in close collaboration with artists including Tony Allen ; 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.Labels
- Sony
- Giant Step Records
- Thirsty Ear
- CD Baby
- JP Live
- Ignition Records
- Motema Music
Opera
Discography
Main artist releases
---Guest appearances and collaborations
---Production and songwriting credits
---Activism
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. 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 actually shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. 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 in poverty-stricken neighborhoods and housing characteristics that may influence drug-related behaviors and levels of child abuse.
Rux joined New Yorkers Against Fracking, organized by singer Natalie Merchant, and featuring Citizen Cope, Mark Ruffalo, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toshi Reagon and Tamar-kali calling for a fracking ban on natural gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing.
Rux worked with the Fort Greene Association, New York philanthropist Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel and Commissioner Laurie Cumbo to erect a cultural medallion at the Carlton Avenue home where novelist Richard Wright lived and penned his seminal work, Native Son.