Carl Hancock Rux

Carl Hancock Rux is an American multidisciplinary artist and social activist.

Described by the NY Times as "a breathlessly inventive multimedia artist", he is the author of the collection of poetry, Pagan Operetta(Semiotext); the novel, Asphalt (Simon & Schuster); and the Obie award-winning play Talk(TCG).

He is also a musician, having recorded several albums, singles, and mixed tapes since the release of his debut, Rux Revue on Sony/550.

An actor, an experimental filmmaker, award-winning journalist, and essayist, as well as a visual artist, his mixed media works, have been included in the Uptown Triennale at the Wallach Gallery, Park Avenue Armory , and at the Frieze Art Fair at London's Serpentine Gallery.

Rux also created the lead role in The Temptation of St. Anthony, the first all-African-American opera to premiere at the Paris Opera.

Rux is co-artistic director of Mabou Mines ; associate artistic director at Harlem Stage The Gate House ; 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 Head of the MFA Writing for Performance Program at CalArts where he continues to teach.

Born Carl Stephen Hancock in Harlem, New York,[1] 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 Ralph.

Eleven years later, while his mother was under the care of a New York City psychiatric institution, she became pregnant with her second son, Carl; the identity of his biological father remains unknown.

He was placed under the guardianship of his maternal grandmother, Geneva Hancock (née Rux), who died of liver cirrhosis due to alcoholism when he was four years old.

Several days would pass before neighbors discovered the child had been surviving on his own, alone in the apartment with the corpse of his deceased grandmother, whom he assumed was sleeping.[2] Placed in the New York City foster care system, he eventually came under the legal guardianship of his great uncle James Henry Rux and his wife Arsula (née Cottrell) Rux and was raised in the Highbridge neighborhood of the Bronx.

While working as a New York City Social Work Trainer, Rux began his professional artistic career as a playwright and, later, a spoken word and performance artist and a frequent collaborator in various interdisciplinary mediums.

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 would eventually become the curator and co-host (along with its 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.

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,” describing him as "a breathlessly inventive multimedia artist" focused on "art, race, memory, and power."

Widely anthologized, 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.

His most notable play is the Obie award-winning play Talk (published by TCG), which premiered at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, starring Anthony Mackie, Reg E. Cathey, Karen Kandel, Maria Tucci, John Seitz, and James Himelsbach.

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.

The opera made its American premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music / BAM Next Wave Festival in October 2004 and official "world premiere" at the Paris Opera, becoming the first all-African-American opera to perform on its stage since the inauguration of the Académie Nationale de Musique - Théâtre de l'Opéra.

Combining both his dramatic training and dance movement into his performance, the American press 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 appeared as an actor in several plays, performance and dance theater works as well as films; and worked as librettist for several operas.

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.

Rux is formally the Head of the MFA Writing for Performance Program at the California Institute of the Arts and has taught and or been an artist in residence at Brown University, Yale University,Hollins University, UMass Amherst, Duke University, Stanford University, University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Eugene Lang and The New School, among others.

Rux (as a favor to rapper, Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def (/ˌmoʊs ˈdɛf/), an American rapper, and actor) 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.

In what was quickly becoming a highly publicized landmark case in which hip-hop lyrics could be used as evidence of criminality, 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" (referring to lyrics from Cash's "Folsom City Blues").

The Portland, Oregon, rapper was found not guilty of conspiracy to distribute narcotics at the end of the trial in which prosecutors used his song lyrics as evidence against him.

Rux, through his work ("Blue Candy", "Red Velvet Dress," and "Living Room")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.

He has also affiliated himself with organizations like Take Back The Night, speaking to the issue of safety for children who are victims of sexual violence and the need for women, children, and men to reclaim their right to safety and freedom.

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

A concert featuring Rux, Merchant, actors Mark Ruffalo and Melissa Leo and musicians Joan Osborne, Tracy Bonham, Toshi Reagon, Citizen Cope, Meshell Ndegeocello and numerous others was held in Albany, N.Y.,.

Rux recorded a follow-up album, Apothecary Rx, selected by French writer Phillippe Robert in the 2008 publication "Great Black Music": an exhaustive 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 (where he was the inaugural performer), "Anima/Animus".

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, aRude Magazine, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art (founded by fellow art critics Okwui Enwezor, Chika Okeke-Agulu and Salah Hassan) and American Theater Magazine and is currently the Multidisciplinary Editor of The Massachusetts Review.

Rux has written text, music, and or performed in a proportionate number of works with various dance companies, including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company; Jane Comfort & Co., Ronald K. Brown's "Evidence"; Urban Bush Women and Paz Tanjiquio's "Topaz Arts" dance theater, among others.

He also originated the title role ( as lead performer) 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 debuted as part of the Ruhr Triennale festival in Duisburg, Germany, with subsequent performances at the Greek Theater in Siracusa, Italy; the Festival di Peralada in Peralada, Spain; the Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria in Santander, Spain; Sadler's Wells in London, Great Britain; the Teatro Piccinni in Bari, Italy; the Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, Netherlands; the Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao and the Teatro Espanol in Madrid, Spain.