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Carl Hancock Rux (/ˈrʌks/) is an American poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, recording artist, journalist, curator and conceptual installation artist working in text, dance, ritualized performance, audio, video, and photography. Described in the NY Times as "a breathlessly inventive multimedia artist" focused on "art, race, memory and power",[1] Rux is the author of several books including the Village Voice Literary Prize-winning collection of poetry, Pagan Operetta, the novel, Asphalt, and the OBIE Award-winning play,Talk and five albums. He appears as a frequent collaborating artist, most notably on Gerald Clayton's album Life Forum[2] (Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album[3]) and as co-author of the staged incarnation of Steel Hammer by Julia Wolfe, the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-nominated work, created with Anne Bogart.[4] Rux is the author/performer of the Lincoln Center commissioned experimental short poetic film The Baptism, a tribute to civil rights activists John Lewis and C. T. Vivian, directed by Carrie Mae Weems (an official selection in the 2022 Segal Center Film Festival on Theater and Performance).

Carl Hancock Rux
Carl Hancock Rux, Harlem Stage Gala, May, 2012
BornCarl Stephen Hancock
New York City, United States
Occupation
  • Poet
  • playwright
  • novelist
  • essayist
  • recording artist
  • actor
  • director
  • conceptual multimedia installation artist
  • curator
LanguageEnglish
Literary movementAfro-Futurism, speculative and dystopian fiction
Notable worksAsphalt, Rux Revue, Talk, Pagan Operetta
Notable awardsAlpert Award in the Arts, NYFA Prize, Village Voice Literary prize, Obie Award, Bessie Award, (BAX) Arts & Artists in Progress Award
Website
www.carlhancockrux.com

Rux is Co-Artistic Director and a board member of Mabou Mines, an award-winning New York City-based experimental mixed media art and social service company founded in 1970 by David Warrilow, Lee Breuer, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis, and Philip Glass; a board member of 122 Community Center "122 CC" (formerly known as Performance Space 122) and Associate Artistic Director/Curator in Residence of Harlem Stage/The Gate House, formerly known only as Aaron Davis Hall (winner of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters William Dawson Award for Programming Excellence and Sustained Achievement in Programming). Rux is also the Multidisciplinary Editor at The Massachusetts Review (recipient of the 2021 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize for Journalism). [1][2][3] Mr. Rux is the inaugural curator/director of Lincoln Center, Park Avenue Armory and Harlem Stage's annual Juneteenth Celebration, I Dream a Dream That Dreams Back at Me.

Rux is the recipient of numerous awards including the Doris Duke Award for New Works, the Doris Duke Charitable Fund, the New York Foundation for the Arts Prize, the Bessie Award, the Alpert Award in the Arts; a 2019 Global Change Maker award by WeMakeChange.Org.[4]

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.


Early life


Rux was born in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem
Rux was born in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem

Rux was born Carl Stephen Hancock in Harlem, New York.[1] His biological mother, Carol Jean Hancock, had chronic mental illness. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and institutionalized shortly after the birth of Rux’s older brother. Rux was born the result of an illegitimate pregnancy (while his mother was under the care of a New York City psychiatric institution). The identity of Rux's biological father is unknown. Rux was placed under the guardianship of his maternal grandmother, Geneva Hancock (née Rux), until her death of cirrhosis of the liver due to alcoholism.[2] At four years of age he entered the New York City foster care system where he remained until he was placed under the legal guardianship of his great uncle James Henry Rux and his wife Arsula (née Cottrell) Rux and raised in the Highbridge neighborhood of the Bronx. Rux attended PS 73, where he was initially exposed to theater by director Neema Barnette who cast Rux in the lead role of Old Judge Mose Is Dead by playwright Joseph White. While attending Roberto Clemente Junior High School, Rux received a scholarship to the Horace Mann School, an independent college preparatory school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx before transferring to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art [3] where he studied visual art. Exposed to jazz music by his legal guardians, including the work of Oscar Brown Jr., John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln,Rux eventually double-majored in music/voice,[3] and sang with the Boys Choir of Harlem. He also became a member of the Harlem Writers Workshop, a Columbia University-based summer journalism training program for inner-city youth. At the age of 15, Rux was legally adopted by his guardians and his surname changed to Rux. Upon graduation from high school he entered Columbia College where he studied in the Creative Writing Program; took private acting classes at both HB studios; trained with Gertrude Jeanette's Hadley Players and took private acting lessons with actor Robert Earl Jones (father of actor James Earl Jones). Rux continued his studies at Columbia University, American University of Paris, and the University of Ghana at Legon.[4]


Career



Writer/Poet


Working as a Social Work Trainer while moonlighting as a freelance art and music critic, Rux became a founding member of Hezekiah Walker's Love Fellowship gospel choir. Influenced by the Lower East Side poetry and experimental theater scene, Rux collaborated with poets Miguel Algarin, Bob Holman, Jayne Cortez, Sekou Sundiata, Ntozake Shange; experimental musicians David Murray, Mal Waldron, Butch Morris, Craig Harris, Jeanne Lee, Leroy Jenkins, Odetta, Steve Earle, Jim Carroll as well as experimental theater artists Laurie Carlos, Robbie McCauley, Ruth Maleczech, Lee Breuer, Reza Abdoh, and others.

He is one of several poets (including Paul Beatty, Tracie Morris, Dael Orlandersmith, Willie Perdomo, Kevin Powell, Maggie Estep, Reg E. Gaines, Edwin Torres, and Saul Williams) to emerge from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, most of whom were included in the poetry anthology Aloud, Voices From the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, winner of the 1994 American Book Award.[5] His 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 first play, Song of Sad Young Men[6] (written in response to his older brother's death from AIDS),[7] was directed by Trazana Beverly[8] and starred actor Isaiah Washington.[9] The play received eleven AUDELCO nominations. His most notable play is the OBIE Award-winning Talk, first produced at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in 2002. Directed by Marion McClinton[10] and starring actor Anthony Mackie, the play won seven OBIE awards.[11]


Recording Artist/Performing Artist


Rux was first featured as a recording artist, on Reg E. Gaines CD Sweeper Don't Clean My Streets (Polygram). As a musician, his work is known to encompass an eclectic mixture of blues, rock, vintage R&B, classical music, futuristic pop, soul, poetry, folk, psychedelic music and jazz. His debut CD, Cornbread, Cognac & Collard Green Revolution (unreleased) was produced by Nona Hendryx and Mark Batson, featuring musicians Craig Harris, Ronnie Drayton and Lonnie Plaxico. 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 for his 2008 publication "Great Black Music": an exhaustive tribute of 110 American albums by African American artists. His fourth studio CD, Good Bread Alley, was released by Thirsty Ear Records, and his fifth "Homeostasis" (CD Baby) released in May 2013. Rux has written and performed (or contributed music) to a proportionate number of dance companies including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company; Jane Comfort & Co. and Ronald K. Brown's "Evidence" among others.


Literature



Books by author



Literary fiction



Selected plays



Selected essays


There is something called black in America, and there is something called white in America, and I know them when I see them, but I will forever be unable to explain the meaning of them, because they are not real, even though they have a very real place in my daily way of seeing, a fundamental relationship to my ever-evolving understanding of history and a critical place in my relationship to humanity.

—Carl Hancock Rux


Selected anthologies



Journalism


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.


Libretti



Music



Solo albums



Collaborations



Contemporary Dance (text & music)



Movin' Spirits Dance Co.



Anita Gonzalez



Jane Comfort & Co.



Urban Bush Women



Jubilation! Dance Co.



Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater



Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble (Ailey II)



Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Theater



Roberta Garrison Co.



M'Zawa Dance Co.



Robert Moses Kin



Topaz Arts Dance



Actor



Theater


Rux studied acting at the Hagen Institute (under Uta Hagen); the Luleå National Theatre School (Luleå, Sweden) and at the National Theater of Ghana (Accra). Rux has appeared in several theater projects, most notably originating 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 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. 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, Rux's performance was described by the American press 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."[19] Rux has also appeared in several plays and performance works for theater, as well as in his own work.


Film/Television


Year Title Role Notes
1996 Naked Acts (Restaurant Patron)
1997 Shattering the Silences: The Case for Minority Faculty (Himself) Winner - CINE Golden Eagle Award Finalist - The New York Festivals
1999 Carl Hancock Rux: Coming of Age (Voices of America TV Documentary) (Himself) Winner (CINE Golden Eagle Award™ [20]
2004 Originals: The Story Of Gil Scott-Heron (BBC documentary) (Himself)
2007 The Grand Inquisitor The One
2007 Absolute Wilson Saint Anthony Winner- Art Basel ART FILM OF THE YEAR award.
2007 Bratz Mr. Whitman/DJ Wax Nominated-Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Picture Nominated- Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Actress (Logan Browning, Janel Parrish, Nathalia Ramos, Skyler Shaye) Nominated- Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Supporting Actor (Jon Voight) Nominated- Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Screen Couple Nominated- Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Remake or Rip-off
2012 Brooklyn Boheme (Documentary) (Himself) Official Selection- Pan African Film Festival Official Selection - 2nd Annual DocNYC Film Festival Opening Night Film- 15th Annual Urban World Film Festival Official Selection- BAM Cinema Tek
2017 Tell Them We Are Rising (Documentary) (Himself)

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[21] as well as NPR. He co-wrote and performed in the national touring production of NPR Presents Water±, directed by Kenny Leon.


Performance Art Exhibitions/Curator



Selected Directorial Credits



Academia


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

He has mentored award-winning writers including recipients of the Yale Drama Prize, Whiting Writers Award, Princess Grace Award, and BBC African Performance Playwriting Award.[citation needed]



Rux has served on panels for foundations, cultural councils, and cultural centers for the arts such as Creative Capital, the CalArts Alpert Award, New York Foundation for the Arts, The Mellon Foundation, the Rockefeller MAP Fund, The MacDowell Colony, The Shed, and others.


Activism


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.,[22] and resulted in public protests.[citation needed]

Rux was a co-producer (through a partnership between MAPP International and Harlem Stage) and curator of WeDaPeoples Cabaret, an annual event regarding citizens without borders in a globally interdependent world. A longtime resident and homeowner in Fort Greene Brooklyn,[23] Carl 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.[24]


Personal life


Rux's great uncle, Rev. Marcellus Carlyle Rux (January 8, 1882 - January 5, 1948) was a graduate of Virginia Union University, and principal of The Keysville Mission Industrial School (later changed to The Bluestone Harmony Academic and Industrial School), a private school founded in 1898 by several African-American Baptist churches in Keysville, Virginia at a time when education for African-Americans was scarce to non-existent. For about 50 years the school had the largest enrollment of any black boarding school in the east and sent a large number of graduates on to college. For the first five years, Marcellus Carlyle Rux was a teacher in the institution. Such was the record he made that he was promoted to the principalship in 1917. Under his administration, the school reached its highest enrollment and had its greatest period of prosperity. The post-Civil war school was one of the first of its kind in the nation and was permanently closed in 1950. The school's still existent structure once featured a girl's and boy's dormitory and President's dwelling and is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.[25] Marcellus Carlyle Rux is listed in History of the American Negro and his Institutions.[26]

Rux's younger brother is a New York City Public School Teacher and his cousin a New York City middle school principal.[27] Rux's older brother died of AIDS-related complications.[28]

Rux's home, a Victorian Brownstone in the Fort Greene Brooklyn section of New York City, has been photographed by Stefani Georgani and frequently featured in home decor magazines and coffee table books internationally, including Elle Decor UK.[citation needed]


References


  1. "Top 50 Literary Magazine". EWR. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  2. Julius Lester, "For America on the Eve of the Second Civil War; Black and White In American Culture." The New York Times, Book Review, March 29, 1970.
  3. "Masthead | Mass Review".
  4. "Global ChangeMakers — We Make Change". Wemakechange.org. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  5. "Bookstore". Nuyorican Poet's Bookstore. Archived from the original on June 12, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  6. Hill, Anthony D.; Barnett, Douglas Q. (2008). Historical Dictionary of African American Theater. Scarecrow Press. p. 428. ISBN 9780810862760.
  7. Wishna, Victor (2006). In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights. Consortium Book Sales & Dist. ISBN 9781884167546.
  8. "Off-Broadway". New York Magazine. New York Media. 23 (32): 145. August 20, 1990.
  9. "Isaiah Washington Biography (1963-)". Film Reference. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  10. Rux, Carl Hancock (2004). Talk. Theatre Communications Gr. ISBN 9781559362269.
  11. "Carl Hancock Rux, Renaissance Man". Weekend Edition Sunday. NPR. June 27, 2004.
  12. Greg Tate, Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture at Barnes & Noble.
  13. Rux, Carl Hancock, "Dream Work and the Mimesis of Carrie Mae Weems", Guggenheim, April 15, 2014.
  14. PAJ 100 (January 2012) - Performance New York (PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art Book 34) - Kindle edition by Bonnie Marranca, Joan Jonas, Robert Wilson, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Meredith Monk, Charles Bernstein, Pablo Helguera, Laurie Anderson, Elizabeth LeCompte, Carolee Schneemann. Arts & Photography Kindle eBooks @. Amazon.com. MIT Press. 10 January 2012. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  15. Rux, Carl Hancock, "In Memoriam: Ruby Dee (1922–2014)", American Theatre, August 12, 2014.
  16. "American Theatre - September 2008". Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-21.
  17. "Glenn Ligon Unveils 'Comrades and Lovers' at The New School", The New School News, May 6, 2015.
  18. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-09-26. Retrieved 2013-09-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. "Balm in Brooklyn | Village Voice". Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
  20. Hall, C. Edward, Media Review Digest, Volume 32, April 1, 2002, p.678.
  21. "Carl Hancock Rux". National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on September 7, 2008.
  22. Drew, Phil (May 9, 2012). "Big stars rally against hydrofracking". The Record. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
  23. Brooklyn Boheme. FilmBuff. January 1, 2011.
  24. Villarosa, Linda (March 20, 2012). "Group Helps You Find Mr. Wright". The Local. Fort Green/Clinton Hill. Archived from the original on March 22, 2012.
  25. "The Bluestone-Harmony Academic and Industrial School".
  26. Caldwell, Arthur Bunyan, "History of the American Negro and his institutions; (Volume 5) online", p. 16.
  27. Colangelo, Lisa L., "Far Rockaway Principal Shawn Rux, who's turning around a failing middle school, nominated for Daily News Hometown Heroes in Education Award", New York Daily News, May 21, 2016.
  28. McGovern, Kyle Thomas (February 21, 2012). "Carl Hancock Rux — An Artist Who is All About The Work". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2015-09-08. Retrieved 2018-01-12.




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