Carl Hancock Rux
Encyclopedia
Carl Hancock Rux is an award winning writer and performer; former Head of the MFA Writing for Performance Program at the California Institute of the Arts
(2006–09) and has taught or been in residence at University of California–San Diego, Stanford University
, University of Massachusetts Amherst
, Hollins University
, University of Iowa
and Brown University
. He is the recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts; Obie and BESSIE award; the Village Voice Literary prize; New York Press Club Journalism Award for Entertainment News; subject of a CINE Golden Eagle Award winning documentary and featured in the New York Times Magazine "Thirty Artists Under The Age of Thirty Most Likely to Influence Culture in the Next Thirty Years".
of German descent. His maternal great grandfather, Alfie Rux, was the brother of Dr. Marcellus Carlyle Rux, principal of the The Bluestone Harmony Academic and Industrial School at Keysville, Virginia, one of the first boarding high schools for African Americans post-emancipation, and pastor of Mt. Olive Baptist Church at South Boston Virginia, and Mt. Ellis at Keysville, Moderator of the Harmony Association, Statistical Secretary of the General Baptist Association of Virginia.
As a teenager, Carl Rux was a member of the Harlem Writers Workshop, a summer journalism training program for inner city youth founded by African American journalists and sponsored by Columbia University
and The Xerox Corporation. While in high school, he sang with the Boys Choir of Harlem
and Hezekiah Walker
's Love Fellowship gospel choir and studied acting. He is a graduate of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts
where he studied both visual art and voice, Columbia University
, and also studied at the American University of Paris
as well as the University of Ghana
at Legon
. After graduating college, Rux wrote theater, film and music criticism for several magazines and publications including Essence magazine, Interview magazine (and later) American Theater magazine.
, 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. 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.Siting the literary influences of Julio Cortázar, Ernesto Sabato, Julio Llamazares, and Gayl Jones, Rux is the author of the novel Asphalt (see Asphalt (novel)
) and the OBIE Award
winning play Talk
.
and received eleven AUDELCO nominations. Rux's most notable play is Talk ( see Talk (play)
)produced at the Joseph Papp
Public Theater in 2002, directed by Marion McClinton
and starring actors Anthony Mackie
, Karen Kandel, Reg E. Cathy, John Seitz, Maria Tucci and James Himelsbach. Set as a panel discussion structured according to Plato's Socratic Dialogues, the play focused on a (fictional) African-American writer, Archer Aymes who became a controversial overnight sensation for his first book, (an experimental novel inspired by the relationship between Agave
and her son Pentheus
from Euripedes The Bacchae
) only to commit suicide in a prison cell ten years later. The play won seven OBIE awards. Rux has written several plays, and also worked as a writer and frequent guest performer in dance, collaborating with Marlies Yearby (choreographer of the Broadway musical Rent
), the Urban Bush Women
, Jane Comfort & Co., Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
,and the Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater. Rux received a BESSIE© award for his direction of the Lisa Jones/Alva Rogers dance musical, Stained. In 2005, and in 2009, he donated his archives to the Billy Rose
Theater Division of the New York Public Library
as well as to the Film and Video/Theater and Dance Library Archives of the California Institute of the Arts
.
, 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 in June 2003 as part of the RuhrTriennale 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; and 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 in 1875.Rux is the subject of the Voices of America television documentary, Carl Hancock Rux, Coming of Age, recipient of the CINE Golden Eagle Award (Larry Clamage
/Richard Maniscalo producers);appeared in the film, The Grand Inquisitor (as The One) directed by Tony Torn, screenplay by Ruth Margraff; the documentary The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: a Film About Gil Scott-Heron
(as “Carl Hancock Rux”), the feature film The Bratz
(as music teacher Mr. Whitman), the forthcoming documentary "Brooklyn Boheme" (as “Carl Hancock Rux”)co-directed by Diane Vargas and Nelson George, and "Migrations", a feature film directed by Nelson George.
; Songs of Myself, awarded the 2006 New York Press Club Journalism Award for Entertainment News (Elena Park/Curtis Fox producers).
while performing at a Toshi Reagon
concert at CBGB's in New York City. Managed by Hendryx and Vicki Wickham
and signed to Hendryx's independent label, Free Records, his debut CD, Cornbread, Cognac & Collard Green Revolution (unreleased) produced by Hendryx and Mark Batson, featured musicians Craig Harris
, Ronnie Drayton and Lonnie Plaxico
. Polly Anthony, then president of Epic Records, signed Rux to Sony/550 after seeing Rux perform with his band at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe
. His CD, Rux Revue
, recorded and produced in Los Angeles by the Dust Brothers
, Tom Rothrock
and Rob Schnapf
, featured drummers Joey Waronker
(formerly of REM) and James Gadson
, bassists Atom Ellis
(of Link Wray
/The New Cars
) and Carol Kaye
, keyboardist James Hall
, and bass guitarist Wah-Wah Watson. The CD was voted one of the top ten alternative music CDs of 1998 (New York Times/Year in Music). Incorporating a gospel influenced Sprechgesang
and Vocalese
style reliant upon an African American influenced alliteration, consonance and assonance while abstaining from the common techniques of poetic monologue popular in spoken word poetry, Rux's music is often associated with the experimental sound of anti-folk and electronica pioneered by Beck
and Stereopathetic Soulmanure
. His baritone singing voice has frequently been described as a cross between Jimi Hendrix
, Jim Morrison
, Scott Walker
and Gil Scott Heron, using vocal harmony hooks reminiscent of Moby
or Alan Wilder
's Recoil, or lush arrangements sometimes reminiscent of Virginia Astley
or The Blue Nile
with influences of Nick Cave
, Bill Withers
and Lou Reed
, mixing soul, gospel, blues, rock, classical and hip-hop into a collage of majestic, dirty blues vamps underscoring heartfelt soliloquies mixed to machine drum samples, live instrumentation and sound effects. Though his debut album received critical acclaim the CD failed to cross over into the mainstream. After several appearances in the U.S. and Europe, most notably on stage with Macy Gray
, Erykah Badu
and The Roots
, Rux asked to be released from his record deal with Sony and recorded a follow up album, "Apothecary Rx", for Giant Step
records, an independent label owned by music promoter Maurice Bernstein. The CD, co-produced by Rux and Stewart Lerman with songs written by Rux, Lerman and Rob Hyman
(co-writer of the song "Time After Time
"), featuring rock musicians Vernon Reid
, experimental jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins
and Brazilian percussionist Venecius Cantuera. Rux toured Europe and recorded songs on the David Holmes
CD "Bow Down To The Exit Sign". One of three tracks he co-wrote and recorded for the album, "Living Room", appeared on the second season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
. While in Europe Rux also collaborated with Portishead producer Geoff Barrow
for Stephanie McKay
's debut CD, McKay.Rux also contributed vocals for Jimmy Riot's (ex-boyfriend of singer Alexa Ray Joel
) art-metal band Torture Sermon. His fourth studio CD, Good Bread Alley, released by Thirsty Ear Records, was co-produced by the artist and label owner Peter Gordon. Rux has since performed with many artists across genres, including Mal Waldron, Jeanne Lee, Craig Harris, Sekou Sundiata, Nona Hendryx,Cyro Baptista, Gerald Clayton and Yoshiro Fukotomi, among others.
Giant Step Records
Giant Step Records
Forma Recordings
Nite Grooves
Go! Beat 1500 Records
Thirsty Ear
Clubstar 2001
Sound Signature
Giant Step Records
Giant Step Records
Giant Step Records
Giant Step Records
LOOP Recordings Aot(ear)oa
Giant Step Records
LOOP Recordings Aot(ear)oa
Thirsty Ear
Rhino Records
Rhino Records
Shout Factory
Producers: Bernice Johnson Reagon/Toshi Reagon
Carl Hancock Rux is an award winning writer and performer; former Head of the MFA Writing for Performance Program at the California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
(2006–09) and has taught or been in residence at University of California–San Diego, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
, Hollins University
Hollins University
Hollins University is a four-year institution of higher education, a private university located on a campus on the border of Roanoke County, Virginia and Botetourt County, Virginia...
, University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
and Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
. He is the recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts; Obie and BESSIE award; the Village Voice Literary prize; New York Press Club Journalism Award for Entertainment News; subject of a CINE Golden Eagle Award winning documentary and featured in the New York Times Magazine "Thirty Artists Under The Age of Thirty Most Likely to Influence Culture in the Next Thirty Years".
Early life
Born Carl Stephen Hancock in Harlem, New York, Rux's biological mother (Carol Jean Hancock) suffered from schizophrenia and was institutionalized shortly after his birth. The identity of his biological father is unknown. After the death of his maternal grandmother Geneva Hancock (née Rux) he entered the New York City foster care system at the age of four. He was legally adopted by his great uncle and aunt, James Henry Rux and Arsula Rux (née Cottrell) at the age of fifteen upon which his surname was legally changed to Rux. The name is of German derivation. It is also a city near Wroclaw, Poland situated on the Oder river in Lower Silesia, formerly a jurisdiction of Bohemia, Austria and Prussia. Carl Hancock Rux has stated his mother, maternal grandmother and great uncle are African American descendents of French HuguenotsHuguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
of German descent. His maternal great grandfather, Alfie Rux, was the brother of Dr. Marcellus Carlyle Rux, principal of the The Bluestone Harmony Academic and Industrial School at Keysville, Virginia, one of the first boarding high schools for African Americans post-emancipation, and pastor of Mt. Olive Baptist Church at South Boston Virginia, and Mt. Ellis at Keysville, Moderator of the Harmony Association, Statistical Secretary of the General Baptist Association of Virginia.
As a teenager, Carl Rux was a member of the Harlem Writers Workshop, a summer journalism training program for inner city youth founded by African American journalists and sponsored by Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and The Xerox Corporation. While in high school, he sang with the Boys Choir of Harlem
Boys Choir of Harlem
The Boys Choir of Harlem was a choir located in Harlem, New York City, United States. Its last performance was in 2007 and the group folded shortly thereafter due to several controversies, a large budget deficit, and the death of its founder.Founded in 1968 by Dr...
and Hezekiah Walker
Hezekiah Walker
Bishop Hezekiah Xzavier Walker, Jr. is a Grammy Award-winning gospel music artist, founder and leader of the Love Fellowship Choir , and Pastor and Bishop of the Love Fellowship Tabernacle, with locations in Brooklyn, New York, and Bensalem, Pennsylvania, in the United States...
's Love Fellowship gospel choir and studied acting. He is a graduate of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts is a high school specializing in teaching visual arts and performing arts, located near Lincoln Center and the Juilliard School in the Lincoln Center district of Manhattan, on Amsterdam Avenue...
where he studied both visual art and voice, Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, and also studied at the American University of Paris
American University of Paris
The American University of Paris is a private, independent, and accredited liberal arts and sciences university in Paris, France. Founded in 1962, the university is one of the oldest American institutions of higher education in Europe...
as well as the University of Ghana
University of Ghana
The University of Ghana is the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian universities and tertiary institutions. It is one of the best universities in Africa and by far the most prestigious in West Africa...
at Legon
Legon
Legon, a suburb of the Ghanaian capital city Accra, is situated about twelve kilometres north-east of the city center. Legon is home to the main campus of the University of Ghana. The word "Legon" is derived from the indigenous Ga language of the people of Greater Accra; NI-LEY GON therefore "Hill...
. After graduating college, Rux wrote theater, film and music criticism for several magazines and publications including Essence magazine, Interview magazine (and later) American Theater magazine.
Literature
Rux eventually became one of several poets (including Paul BeattyPaul Beatty
Paul Beatty is a contemporary African-American author. Beatty received an MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College and an MA in psychology from Boston University. A 1980 graduate of El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California.In 1990, Paul Beatty was crowned the first ever Grand...
, Tracie Morris, Dael Orlandersmith
Dael Orlandersmith
Dael Orlandersmith is an actress, poet and playwright who is best known for her Obie Award winning Beauty's Daughter and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama, Yellowman....
, Willie Perdomo
Willie Perdomo
-Overview:Willie Perdomo is a prize-winning Nuyorican poet and children's book author. He is the author of Where a Nickel Costs a Dime , Postcards of El Barrio , and Smoking Lovely , which received a PEN American Center Beyond Margins Award...
, Kevin Powell
Kevin Powell
Kevin Powell is an American political activist, poet, writer, and entrepreneur. Powell is also a nationally recognized activist who speaks against violence against girls and women, appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show in March 2009...
, Maggie Estep
Maggie Estep
Maggie Estep is an American poet and writer. She has published six books and released two spoken word albums: Love is a Dog From Hell and No More Mr. Nice Girl.Estep was born in 1963 in Summit, New Jersey...
, Reg E. Gaines, Edwin Torres
Edwin Torres (poet)
Edwin Torres is a "Nuyorican" poet.-Early years:Torres's parents moved from Puerto Rico and settled in the borough of The Bronx in New York City. His father died when he was young and he was then raised by his mother and her brother Martin. Martin provided comfort and family support...
and Saul Williams
Saul Williams
Saul Stacey Williams is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.-Biography:...
) to emerge from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Nuyorican Poets Café
The Nuyorican Poets Café is a non-profit organization in Alphabet City, Manhattan. It is a bastion of the Nuyorican art movement in New York City, USA, and has become a forum for poetry, music, hip hop, video, visual arts, comedy and theatre.-History:...
, most of whom were included in the poetry anthology Aloud, Voices From the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, winner of the 1994 American Book Award. His first book of poetry, Pagan Operetta
Pagan Operetta
Pagan Operetta is a collection of poetry and experimental prose by Carl Hancock Rux. Loosely inspired by Homer's Odyssey, the collection is structured as a poetic memoir...
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.Siting the literary influences of Julio Cortázar, Ernesto Sabato, Julio Llamazares, and Gayl Jones, Rux is the author of the novel Asphalt (see Asphalt (novel)
Asphalt (novel)
Asphalt is a novel of speculative fiction written by Carl Hancock Rux published by Atria/Simon & Schuster.-Plot:Racine, an expatriate DJ returns from an ill-fated stay in Paris to a war-torn New York City and finds himself lodging in a deteriorating civil war era brownstone in a Brooklyn...
) and the OBIE Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
winning play Talk
Talk
Talk may refer to:* Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people* Speech, the production of a spoken language* Interaction, face to face conversations-Software:* Google Talk, a Windows- and web-based instant messaging program...
.
Theater/Dance
Rux is the author of several plays.His first, Song of Sad Young Men ( written in response to his older brother's death from AIDS) was directed by Tony Award–winning actress Trazana Beverly, and starred actor Isaiah WashingtonIsaiah Washington
Isaiah Washington IV is an American actor. A veteran of several Spike Lee films, Washington is best known for his role as Dr. Preston Burke on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2007.-Personal life:...
and received eleven AUDELCO nominations. Rux's most notable play is Talk ( see Talk (play)
Talk (play)
Talk is an Obie award winning play written by Carl Hancock Rux, first produced at the Joseph Papp Public Theater New York Shakespeare Festival in 2002. The play parodies a panel discussion, regarding the identity of an enigmatic writer named Archer Aymes decades after his death, formed to debate...
)produced at the Joseph Papp
Joseph Papp
Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in downtown New York . "The Public," as it is known, has many small theatres within it...
Public Theater in 2002, directed by Marion McClinton
Marion McClinton
Marion McClinton is a theatre director and playwright. He was nominated for the Tony Award for King Hedley II. He won the 2000 Vivian Robinson Audelco Black Theatre Awards, Director/Dramatic Production and the 1999–2000 Obie Awards, Direction, for Jitney, and was nominated for the Drama Desk...
and starring actors Anthony Mackie
Anthony Mackie
Anthony Mackie is an American actor. He has been featured in feature films, television series and Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, including Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Drowning Crow, McReele, A Soldier's Play, and Talk, by Carl Hancock Rux, for which he won an Obie Award in 2002.In 2002 he featured...
, Karen Kandel, Reg E. Cathy, John Seitz, Maria Tucci and James Himelsbach. Set as a panel discussion structured according to Plato's Socratic Dialogues, the play focused on a (fictional) African-American writer, Archer Aymes who became a controversial overnight sensation for his first book, (an experimental novel inspired by the relationship between Agave
Agave
Agave is a genus of monocots. The plants are perennial, but each rosette flowers once and then dies ; they are commonly known as the century plant....
and her son Pentheus
Pentheus
In Greek mythology, Pentheus was a king of Thebes, son of the strongest of the Spartes, Echion, and of Agave, daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and the goddess Harmonia....
from Euripedes The Bacchae
The Bacchae
The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC as part of a tetralogy that also included Iphigeneia at Aulis, and which...
) only to commit suicide in a prison cell ten years later. The play won seven OBIE awards. Rux has written several plays, and also worked as a writer and frequent guest performer in dance, collaborating with Marlies Yearby (choreographer of the Broadway musical Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
), the Urban Bush Women
Urban Bush Women
Urban Bush Women is a Brooklyn, New York based non-profit dance company that was founded in 1984 by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. It is an ensemble of seven women who perform very diverse pieces choreographed by Jawole as well as many other reputable choreographers...
, Jane Comfort & Co., Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company is an American dance company based out of Harlem in New York City. Founded in 1983 by Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, the company made its debut performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with the world premiere of Intuitive Momentum with lauded drummer...
,and the Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey, Jr. was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Ailey is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance...
American Dance Theater. Rux received a BESSIE© award for his direction of the Lisa Jones/Alva Rogers dance musical, Stained. In 2005, and in 2009, he donated his archives to the Billy Rose
Billy Rose
William "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...
Theater Division of the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
as well as to the Film and Video/Theater and Dance Library Archives of the California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
.
Actor/Performer
Rux has appeared in several theater and film projects. He originated the title role in the folk opera production of The Temptation of St. AnthonyThe Temptation of Saint Anthony (opera)
The Temptation of St. Anthony is an opera rooted in the gospel tradition based on the novel by Gustave Flaubert, directed by Robert Wilson with book, libretto and music by Bernice Johnson Reagon and costumes by Geoffrey Holder...
, based on the Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...
novel, directed by Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson (director)
Robert Wilson is an American avant-garde stage director and playwright who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist'". Over the course of his wide-ranging career, he has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video...
with book, libretto and music by Bernice Johnson Reagon
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Bernice Johnson Reagon is a singer, composer, scholar, and social activist, who founded the a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973.-Early life and education:...
and costumes by Geoffrey Holder
Geoffrey Holder
Geoffrey Richard Holder is a Trinidadian actor, choreographer, director, dancer, painter, costume designer, singer and voice-over artist.-Early life:...
. The production debuted in June 2003 as part of the RuhrTriennale 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; and Sadler's Wells in London, Great Britain; the Teatro Piccinni
Teatro Piccinni
Teatro Piccinni is a theatre in the city of Bari, Apulia on the east coast of Italy. It was founded in 1854 and opened on 30 May of that year. -References:...
in Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
, 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
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
/ BAM Next Wave Festival in October 2004 and official "world premiere" at the Paris Opera
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
, 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 in 1875.Rux is the subject of the Voices of America television documentary, Carl Hancock Rux, Coming of Age, recipient of the CINE Golden Eagle Award (Larry Clamage
Larry Clamage
Lawrence Howard Clamage is an American filmmaker and author. He has written, directed and produced a wide variety of notable documentaries, including Carl Hancock Rux, Coming of Age and The Lost Boys: The Journey to Freedom, both recipients of CINE Golden Eagle Awards.He began his directing...
/Richard Maniscalo producers);appeared in the film, The Grand Inquisitor (as The One) directed by Tony Torn, screenplay by Ruth Margraff; the documentary The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: a Film About Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron
Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s...
(as “Carl Hancock Rux”), the feature film The Bratz
Bratz
Bratz is an American line of fashion dolls and merchandise manufactured by MGA Entertainment. Four original 10" dolls were released in 2001 - Cloe, Jade, Sasha and Yasmin...
(as music teacher Mr. Whitman), the forthcoming documentary "Brooklyn Boheme" (as “Carl Hancock Rux”)co-directed by Diane Vargas and Nelson George, and "Migrations", a feature film directed by Nelson George.
Radio
Carl Hancock 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's Soundcheck. Rux co-wrote and narrated the radio documentary, Walt WhitmanWalt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
; Songs of Myself, awarded the 2006 New York Press Club Journalism Award for Entertainment News (Elena Park/Curtis Fox producers).
Music
Having recorded on spoken word artist/Tony Award–winning playwright Reg E. Gaines (Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk) sophomore CD Sweeper Don't Clean My Streets (Polygram), Rux was discovered by singer/songwriter Nona HendryxNona Hendryx
Nona Hendryx is an American vocalist, producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress.Hendryx is known for her work as a solo artist as well as for being one-third of the trio Labelle, who had a hit with "Lady Marmalade." Her music has ranged from soul, funk, dance, and R&B to hard rock, art...
while performing at a Toshi Reagon
Toshi Reagon
Toshi Reagon is an American folk/blues musician. She is the daughter of Freedom Singers co-founders Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, with whom she has sometimes collaborated on musical projects and of Cordell Hull Reagon, a leader of the civil rights movement in...
concert at CBGB's in New York City. Managed by Hendryx and Vicki Wickham
Vicki Wickham
Vicki Heather Wickham is an English talent manager, entertainment producer, and songwriter.-Career:She is most known for producing the 60s British television show Ready Steady Go!, and managing well known pop/soul acts Labelle and Dusty Springfield....
and signed to Hendryx's independent label, Free Records, his debut CD, Cornbread, Cognac & Collard Green Revolution (unreleased) produced by Hendryx and Mark Batson, featured musicians Craig Harris
Craig Harris
Craig Harris is the name of:*Craig S. Harris , American Jazz trombonist and composer*Craig Harris *Craig Harris , Executive Editor at IGN*Craig Harris - Characters :...
, Ronnie Drayton and Lonnie Plaxico
Lonnie Plaxico
Lonnie Plaxico is an African American jazz bassist.Plaxico was born in Chicago, Illinois into a musical family, and started playing the bass at the age of twelve, turning professional at fourteen...
. Polly Anthony, then president of Epic Records, signed Rux to Sony/550 after seeing Rux perform with his band at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Nuyorican Poets Café
The Nuyorican Poets Café is a non-profit organization in Alphabet City, Manhattan. It is a bastion of the Nuyorican art movement in New York City, USA, and has become a forum for poetry, music, hip hop, video, visual arts, comedy and theatre.-History:...
. His CD, Rux Revue
Rux Revue
Rux Revue is the debut album by Carl Hancock Rux, released by Sony 550 Records and produced in Los Angeles by the Dust Brothers;Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf; featuring drummers Joey Waronker and James Gadson; bassists Atom Ellis and Carol Kaye; keyboardist James Hall and bass guitarist Wah-Wah...
, recorded and produced in Los Angeles by the Dust Brothers
Dust Brothers
The Dust Brothers are the Los Angeles, California based, Grammy Award winning producers, E.Z. Mike and King Gizmo , famous for their sample-based music in the 1980s and 1990s, and specifically for their work on the albums Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys, Odelay by Beck, and the soundtrack to...
, Tom Rothrock
Tom Rothrock
Tom Rothrock is an international record producer, composer and musician. Tom Rothrock has produced albums with James Blunt, Badly Drawn Boy, R. L. Burnside, Yonder Mountain String Band, Athlete, Sloan and Roman Carter....
and Rob Schnapf
Rob Schnapf
Rob Schnapf is an American record producer and musician. He was the co-producer of Elliott Smith's albums Either/Or, XO , Figure 8 and From a Basement on the Hill, for which he was recruited by Smith's family to complete after Smith's death.Schnapf, along with Rothrock and partner...
, featured drummers Joey Waronker
Joey Waronker
Joseph "Joey" Waronker is an American drummer and music producer. He is the son of record producer Lenny Waronker and singer/actress Donna Loren; his younger sister is musician Anna Waronker; and his grandfather is record executive and professional violinist Simon Waronker. He has three other...
(formerly of REM) and James Gadson
James Gadson
James Gadson is an American drummer and session musician. Beginning his career in the late 1960s, Gadson has since become one of the most-recorded drummers in the history of R&B music....
, bassists Atom Ellis
Atom Ellis
Atom Ellis, , is a bass guitarist from San Francisco, California. Atom was a founding member of the Thrash Funk band Psychefunkapus from 1986-1992 and a member of the San Francisco band Dieselhed from 1993-2000...
(of Link Wray
Link Wray
Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer....
/The New Cars
The New Cars
The New Cars was a band formed in 2005 with two of the original members of the 1970s/1980s new wave band The Cars. The band was composed of Todd Rundgren, drummer Prairie Prince, Kasim Sulton, and original Cars members Greg Hawkes and Elliot Easton...
) and Carol Kaye
Carol Kaye
Carol Kaye is an American musician, best known as one of the most prolific and widely heard bass guitarists in history, playing on an estimated 10,000 recording sessions in a 55 year career....
, keyboardist James Hall
James Hall
-Actors, Entertainment, Broadcasting:* James Hall , American actor* Jamie Hall , Canadian TV producer-Authors:* James Hall , American academic* James Baker Hall , American author...
, and bass guitarist Wah-Wah Watson. The CD was voted one of the top ten alternative music CDs of 1998 (New York Times/Year in Music). Incorporating a gospel influenced Sprechgesang
Sprechgesang
Sprechgesang and Sprechstimme are musical terms used to refer to an expressionist vocal technique between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, sprechgesang is a term directly related to the operatic recitative manner of singing , whereas sprechstimme is...
and Vocalese
Vocalese
Vocalese is a style or genre of jazz singing wherein lyrics are written for melodies that were originally part of an all-instrumental composition or improvisation. Whereas scat singing uses improvised nonsense syllables, such as "bap ba dee dot bwee dee" in solos, vocalese uses lyrics, either...
style reliant upon an African American influenced alliteration, consonance and assonance while abstaining from the common techniques of poetic monologue popular in spoken word poetry, Rux's music is often associated with the experimental sound of anti-folk and electronica pioneered by Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
and Stereopathetic Soulmanure
Stereopathetic Soulmanure
Stereopathetic Soulmanure is the second studio album by American alternative rock musician Beck, released on Flipside in 1994, a week before the appearance of his Geffen debut Mellow Gold. The album comprises mostly home demos, live performances, and abstract noise experiments...
. His baritone singing voice has frequently been described as a cross between Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...
, Scott Walker
Scott Walker
Scott Walker may refer to:*Scott Walker , Governor of Wisconsin, and former county executive of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin*Scott Walker , boxer...
and Gil Scott Heron, using vocal harmony hooks reminiscent of Moby
Moby
Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...
or Alan Wilder
Alan Wilder
Alan Charles Wilder is a British musician, formerly of Depeche Mode. His current musical project is called Recoil, started as a side project to Depeche Mode. When he left the latter in 1995, it became Wilder's primary project...
's Recoil, or lush arrangements sometimes reminiscent of Virginia Astley
Virginia Astley
Virginia Astley is an English singer-songwriter most active during the 1980s and 1990s. From the start of her songwriting career in 1980, Astley took her inspiration from many sources. Her classical training influenced her as did a desire to be experimental with her music...
or The Blue Nile
The Blue Nile
The Blue Nile is an adult alternative/pop band from Glasgow. The music of The Blue Nile is built heavily on synthesizers and electronic instrumentation and percussion, although later works featured acoustic guitar more prominently.-Early years:...
with influences of Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
, Bill Withers
Bill Withers
William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands"...
and Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, mixing soul, gospel, blues, rock, classical and hip-hop into a collage of majestic, dirty blues vamps underscoring heartfelt soliloquies mixed to machine drum samples, live instrumentation and sound effects. Though his debut album received critical acclaim the CD failed to cross over into the mainstream. After several appearances in the U.S. and Europe, most notably on stage with Macy Gray
Macy Gray
Macy Gray is a Grammy Award-winning American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress, famed for her distinctive raspy voice, and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday and Betty Davis.Gray has released five studio albums, with her fifth studio album, The Sellout,...
, Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright , better known by her stage name Erykah Badu , is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz. She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her eccentric, cerebral musical...
and The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
, Rux asked to be released from his record deal with Sony and recorded a follow up album, "Apothecary Rx", for Giant Step
Giant Step
Giant Step is a New York based concert promoter, marketing company, and record label.-1990-1995: The Groove Academy and Early Years:Giant Step began in 1990 as “a roving, freewheeling party” in New York City, a weekly production of British promoter, Maurice Bernstein, and his South African partner,...
records, an independent label owned by music promoter Maurice Bernstein. The CD, co-produced by Rux and Stewart Lerman with songs written by Rux, Lerman and Rob Hyman
Rob Hyman
Robert Andrew "Rob" Hyman is an American singer, songwriter, keyboard player, accordion player, producer, arranger and recording studio owner, best known for being a founding member of the rock band The Hooters.-Early life:Hyman started taking piano lessons at the age of four and grew up playing...
(co-writer of the song "Time After Time
Time after Time (Cyndi Lauper song)
"Time After Time" is a song by American singer Cyndi Lauper, released as the second single from her album She's So Unusual. It reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 9, 1984, and remained there for two weeks...
"), featuring rock musicians Vernon Reid
Vernon Reid
Vernon Reid is an English-born American guitarist, songwriter, composer, and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.Critic Steve Huey writes, "[Reid's]...
, experimental jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins
Leroy Jenkins
Leroy Jenkins was a composer and free jazz violinist and violist.Jenkins was involved in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians while a public school teacher in Chicago. He co-founded the Creative Construction Company with Anthony Braxton and others...
and Brazilian percussionist Venecius Cantuera. Rux toured Europe and recorded songs on the David Holmes
David Holmes
David Holmes is the name of:* David Holmes , stuntman and actor in the Harry Potter films* David Holmes , former Chairman of Rangers* David Holmes , former BBC Political Editor...
CD "Bow Down To The Exit Sign". One of three tracks he co-wrote and recorded for the album, "Living Room", appeared on the second season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
. While in Europe Rux also collaborated with Portishead producer Geoff Barrow
Geoff Barrow
Geoffrey Paul Barrow is the producer, disc jockey, and instrumentalist for Portishead.Portishead—formed in 1991—was named after the small town near Bristol where Barrow grew up...
for Stephanie McKay
Stephanie McKay
Stephanie McKay is a soul singer and songwriter from the Bronx in New York, whose music encompasses styles include elements of classic rock, funk, pop and hip hop....
's debut CD, McKay.Rux also contributed vocals for Jimmy Riot's (ex-boyfriend of singer Alexa Ray Joel
Alexa Ray Joel
Alexa Ray Joel is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. She is the daughter and only child of singer-songwriter Billy Joel and supermodel Christie Brinkley....
) art-metal band Torture Sermon. His fourth studio CD, Good Bread Alley, released by Thirsty Ear Records, was co-produced by the artist and label owner Peter Gordon. Rux has since performed with many artists across genres, including Mal Waldron, Jeanne Lee, Craig Harris, Sekou Sundiata, Nona Hendryx,Cyro Baptista, Gerald Clayton and Yoshiro Fukotomi, among others.
Books by the author
- Elmina blues (Poetry)
- Pagan Operetta (Poetry & Fiction/SemioText)
- Talk (Play/TCG)
- Asphalt (novel/Atria, Simon & Schuster)
Selected Anthologies
- Da Capo best music writing 2004 (essay)
- Everything but the burden: what white people are taking from Black Culture (essay)
- Heights of the Marvelous: a New York anthology (poetry)
- Listen Up!: Spoken Word Poetry (poetry)
- Juncture: 25 very good stories and 12 excellent drawings (poetry)
- Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project (play)
- African American Theatre (essay)
- The Souls of Mixed Folk: Race, Politics, and Aesthetics in the New Milleneium (interview)
- Souls: a critical journal of Black politics, culture, and society (interview)
- In their Company: portraits of American playwrights (photography & interviews)
- Action: the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Theater Festival (play)
- Bum Rush the Page: a Def Poetry Jam (poetry)
- A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama (play)
- Hip-hop revolution in the flesh: power, knowledge, and pleasure in Lil Kim (essay)
- The Best American Poetry 2003 (poetry)
- Hip: The History (essay)
Lead Artist
- Rux RevueRux RevueRux Revue is the debut album by Carl Hancock Rux, released by Sony 550 Records and produced in Los Angeles by the Dust Brothers;Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf; featuring drummers Joey Waronker and James Gadson; bassists Atom Ellis and Carol Kaye; keyboardist James Hall and bass guitarist Wah-Wah...
(Sony 550 Music) - Apothecary RxApothecary RxApothecary Rx is the second studio album by Carl Hancock Rux, produced by Rob Hyman and Stewart Lerman. The album also features singer Stephanie McKay and contributions from jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins and singer-songwriter Marc Anthony Thompson .- Track listing :# I Got a Name # Me # Ground #...
(Giant Step Records) - Good Bread Alley (Thirsty Ear Music)
Collaborations
- Lamentations (You, Son) (12")
Giant Step Records
- Lamentations (You, Son) (12", Promo)
Giant Step Records
- A New Dimension (12") I Am
Forma Recordings
- Abstract Jazz Lounge III (2xLP, Album) I Am (Original Mix)
Nite Grooves
- Bow Down To The Exit Sign/Slip Your Skin/Compared to What/Living Room
Go! Beat 1500 Records
- Optometry (CD, Album) Asphalt (Tome II)
Thirsty Ear
- Deep House Vol. 2 - Harley & Muscle In The Mix (2xCD) Lamentations(You, Son)
Clubstar 2001
- Eclectic Aesthetic (Part 2) (CDr, Mixed) Intro To (R)Evolution
Sound Signature
- Sessions: Volume One (CD, Comp, Mixed) Lamentations (You, Son)
Giant Step Records
- Soul Sessions 2 (2xLP) Protean Character
Giant Step Records
- Soul Sessions 2 (CD, Comp) Protean Character
Giant Step Records
- Fall 2003 Records Sampler (CD, Comp) Lamentations
Giant Step Records
- Loop Select 005 (CD + DVD) Lamentations (You, Son)
LOOP Recordings Aot(ear)oa
- Simply Good Music Vol. 1 (CD, Comp) Lamentations
Giant Step Records
- The Green Room 003:(Ear)th (CD) Protean Character
LOOP Recordings Aot(ear)oa
- Thirsty Ear Blue Series Sampler (CD, Smplr) Thadeus Star
Thirsty Ear
- Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words from the Harlem Renaissance
Rhino Records
- Our Souls Have Grown Deep Like The Rivers: Black Poets Read Their Work
Rhino Records
- Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work 1888-2006
Shout Factory
- Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre: Revelations A Musical Retrospective...
- The Temptation of Saint Anthony
Producers: Bernice Johnson Reagon/Toshi Reagon