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 (founded by fellow art critics Okwui Enwezor, Chika Okeke-Agulu and Salah Hassan) and American Theatre (magazine), among others. Rux's writings and monographs on visual art include essays on the work of conceptual artist Glenn Ligon ( I Stand in My Place With My Own Day Here: Site-Specific Art at The New School, edited by Frances Richards with a foreword by Lydia Matthews and introduction by Silvia Rocciolo and Erik Stark); the introduction for Nick Cave’s Until; and the Guggenheim Museum’s Carrie Mae Weems retrospective.

Rux is also a singer-songwriter who has released several albums, singles, and mixtapes since his major-label debut, Rux Revue, released by Sony 550 Music. His recording career has encompassed jazz, electronic music, rock,experimental music. Among his most notable collaborators are electronic musicians DJ Spooky, Jeff Mills, David Holmes, Geoff Barrow of Portishead, and Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen; rock musicians Nona Hendryx, Vernon Reid, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Rob Marshall (formerly of Exit Calm); and jazz artists Randy Weston, Mal Waldron, Leroy Jenkins, Gerald Clayton, and James Brandon Lewis.

Trained as a visual artist, Rux's mixed media works (with frequent collaborator, visual artist and sculptor, Dianne Smith) 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, special guest resident artist at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (where annually he conceives and stages its campus-wide Juneteenth festival) former 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 (1933–2002), was an unwed teenager when she was diagnosed with schizophrenia shortly after the birth of her first child (Rux's older brother). 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 father (on Rux's original birth certificate, the names of his biological mother and maternal grandmother, Geneva Hancock née Rux, are the only parental names listed.)

Rux 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 (Rux's grandmother and her siblings had been abandoned by their own mother sometime during the Great Depression). 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 (1915–1994), a furrier and decorated World War II veteran, and his wife Arsula Rux (née Cottrell). 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,Plays,Novel 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. and is featured in the poetry anthology Aloud, Voices From the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, (winner of the 1994 American Book Award).

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 (Impacting) the Literary Landscape." Rux is the author of the novel Asphalt and the author of several plays, including the Obie award-winning play Talk (published by TCG), which premiered at the Joseph Papp Public Theater (co-produced by the Foundry Theater and the Joseph Papp Public Theater/nat'l tour); Song of Sad Young Men (Producer's Club Theater/nat'l tour); Smoke Lilies and Jade (Center for New Performance); No Black Male Show (The Kitchen/nat'l tour), and many others.

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, Opera 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...(achieving) a near-iconic power, equally evoking El Greco's saints in extremis and images of civil rights protesters besieged by fire hoses." 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" (CD Baby), 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 (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.

Labels Sony (550 Music) Giant Step Records Thirsty Ear CD Baby JP Live Ignition Records Motema Music

Opera Rux has written the book and libretto for several operas including Why Don't Girls Wear Pearls Anymore? by Pulitzer Prize-nominated Israeli composer Tamar Muskal; Mackandal by Haitian Cuban composer Yosvany Terry; and several works by American composers including Blackamoor Angel by Deidre Murray; Steel Hammer by Julia Wolfe (2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist); and Swann by Tamar-kali.

Discography

Main artist releases Year Title Type Label Notes c. 1996 Cornbread, Cognac & Collard Green (R)evolution Album (unreleased) — Early debut project produced by Nona Hendryx and Mark Batson; frequently cited in artist biographies though not commercially released 1999 Rux Revue Studio album Sony 550 Music Debut commercial album 2000 Intro to (R)Evolution / Asphalt Yards Single Giant Step Issued on CD and 12" vinyl 2000 Remixes EP Giant Step Remix EP derived from Rux Revue material 2001 Lamentations (You, Son) 12" single Giant Step Vinyl-only release 2004 Apothecary Rx Studio album Giant Step International release; some territories list 2003 2006 Good Bread Alley Studio album Thirsty Ear Recordings Includes “My Brother’s Hands (Union Song)” and “Thadius Star” 2013 Homeostasis Studio album Independent Features collaborations with Martha Redbone 2020 Anima / Animus Live album Independent Recorded live at Joe’s Pub

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Guest appearances and collaborations Year Artist Release Track(s) Role 1995 Reg E. Gaines Sweeper Don’t Clean My Streets — Guest appearance / spoken-word contribution 2000 David Holmes Bow Down to the Exit Sign “Living Room”; “Slip Your Skin” Featured vocals 2002 DJ Spooky (with Matthew Shipp) Optometry “Asphalt (Tome II)” Spoken-word vocals 2003–2004 Bernice Johnson Reagon / Robert Wilson The Temptation of St. Anthony — Originated the role of St. Anthony; performance documentation exists 2010 David Holmes The Dogs Are Parading “Living Room (Kevin Shields Remix)” Featured vocals 2013 Gerald Clayton Life Forum “A Life Forum” Spoken-word voice 2020 Humanist Humanist “Ring of Truth” Featured vocals; songwriter

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Production and songwriting credits Year Artist Release Track(s) Credit 2003 Stephanie McKay McKay “How Long” Songwriter; publishing administered through performing rights organizations (ASCAP/BMI) 2003 Stephanie McKay McKay “Thadius Star” Songwriter; publishing administered through performing rights organizations (ASCAP/BMI) 2020 Humanist Humanist “Ring of Truth” Songwriter and featured vocalist; publishing registered with performing rights organizations

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