Episode 33: Carl Hancock Rux
Originally aired on March 21, 2022."They took away the drum, so I use my voice" My conversation with Poet, Playwright, Essayist, Recording artist, Author and Theatre Director Carl Hancock Rux.
Carl Hancock Rux's work crosses the disciplines of poetry, theater, music, and literary fiction in order to achieve what one critic describes as a "dizzying oral artistry...unleashing a torrent of paper bag poetry and post modern Hip-Bop music; the ritualistic blues of self awakening."
Carl Hancock Rux is an American poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, recording artist, actor, theater director, radio journalist, as well as a frequent collaborator in the fields of film, modern dance, and contemporary art. He 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.
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 and later found himself influenced by the Lower East Side poetry and experimental theater scene, collaborating 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.
RECORDING ARTIST/PERFORMING ARTIST
His CD Rux Revue was recorded and produced in Los Angeles by the Dust Brothers, Tom Rothrock, and Rob Schnapf and voted one of the top ten alternative music CDs of 1998 (New York Times). 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 albums including 1954's "Lady Sings The Blues" by Billie Holiday, the work of Jazz artists Oliver Nelson, Max Roach, John Coltrane, rhythm and blues artists Otis Redding, Ike & Tina Turner, Curtis Mayfield, George Clinton; as well as individual impressions of Fela Kuti, Jimi Hendrix, and Mos Def.) His fourth studio CD, Good Bread Alley, was released by Thirsty Ear Records, and his fifth Homeostasis (CD Baby) was 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.
THE BAPTISM
The recently Lincoln Center commissioned poem
Written and Performed by Carl Hancock Rux
Directed by Carrie Mae Weems
About
Baptism (of The Sharecropper's Son & The Boy From Boonville) by award-winning poet and artist Carl Hancock Rux is a three-part poem and the artist's tribute to the legacies of civil rights leaders John Lewis and C.T. Vivian. Written and performed by Rux, the Lincoln Center commission is also an 11-minute short abstract film in two iterations—The Baptism and The Baptism (rhetoric)—directed by artist Carrie Mae Weems.
http://thebaptismpoem.org
