Carl Hancock Rux

Carl Hancock Rux
Carl Hancock Rux, Harlem Stage Gala, May, 2012
Born	Carl Stephen Hancock New York City, United States
Occupation	Poet playwright novelist essayist recording artist actor director
Language	English
Literary movement	Afro-Futurism, speculative and dystopian fiction
Notable works	Asphalt, Rux Revue, Talk, Pagan Operetta
Notable awards	Alpert Award in the Arts, NYFA Prize, Village Voice Literary prize, Obie Award, Bessie Award, (BAX) Arts & Artists in Progress Award
Website
www.carlhancockrux.com

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. A 2021 NY Times article identified Rux 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. His music has been released internationally on several labels including Sony/550, Thirsty Ear, and Giant Step. Mr. Rux is also co-Artistic Director of Mabou Mines, a 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. He 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 (NYFA) Prize, the Bessie Award, the Alpert Award in the Arts, and a 2019 Global Change Maker award by WeMakeChange.Org.^[2] Mr. 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 Carl Stephen Hancock in Harlem, New York.^[3] His biological mother, Carol Jean Hancock, suffered from chronic mental illness, diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, and was institutionalized shortly after the birth of his 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.^[4] At four years of age he entered the New York City foster care system where he remained until he was eventually placed under the legal guardianship of his great uncle (grandmother's brother) James Henry Rux and his wife Arsula (née Cottrell) and raised on a step street in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, later used as the filming location for the stairway dance scene in the 2019 film Joker.^[5]

Rux attended PS 73, Roberto Clemente Junior High School and received a scholarship to the Horace Mann School, an independent Ivy college preparatory school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx before transferring to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts^[6] 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,^[6] and sang with the Boys Choir of Harlem. He also became a member of the Harlem Writers Workshop, a summer journalism training program for inner-city youth founded by African-American journalists, sponsored by Columbia University and The Xerox Corporation. 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; and trained with Gertrude Jeanette's Hadley Players as well as actor Robert Earl Jones (father of actor James Earl Jones). Rux continued his studies at Columbia University, American University of Paris, as well as the University of Ghana at Legon.^[7]

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 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.

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.^[8] 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^[9] (written in response to his older brother's death from AIDS),^[10] was directed by Trazana Beverly^[11] and starred actor Isaiah Washington.^[12] 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^[13] and starring actor Anthony Mackie, the play won seven OBIE awards.^[14]

Recording Artist/Performing Artist[]

Rux is also a recording artist, first featured 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. His CD Rux Revue was 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 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.

Literature[]

Books by author[]

• Elmina Blues (poetry)
• Pagan Operetta (poetry/Short Fiction/SemioText)
• Asphalt (novel/Simon & Schuster)
• Talk (drama/TCG Press)

Literary fiction[]

• Asphalt (novel) (Atria, Simon & Schuster)
• The Exalted (novel) forthcoming

Selected plays[]

• Song of Sad Young Men
• Talk
• Geneva Cottrell, Waiting for the Dog to Die
• Smoke, Lilies and Jade
• Song of Sad Young Men
• Chapter & Verse
• Pipe
• Pork Dream in the American House of Image
• Not the Flesh of Others
• Singing In the Womb of Angels
• Better Dayz Jones (Harlem Stage)
• "Stranger On Earth" (Harlem Stage)
• The (No) Black Male Show
• Mycenaean
• Asphalt (directed by Talvin Wilkes)
• Etudes for the Sleep of Other Sleepers (directed by Laurie Carlos)
• Steel Hammer (co-written by Will Power, Kia Cothran and Regina Taylor for the SITI company, directed by Anne Bogart).
• The Exalted (directed by Anne Bogart)
• NPR Presents WATER ± (co-written by Arthur Yorinks, directed by Kenny Leon)

Selected essays[]

• Eminem: The New White Negro^[15]
• "Dream Work and the Mimesis of Carrie Mae Weems"^[16]
• "Belief and the Invisible Playwright"^[17]
• "In Memoriam: Ruby Dee (1922–2014)"^[18]
• "Up From The Mississippi Delta"^[19]
• "Democratic Vistas of Space and Light"^[20]
• "A Rage In Harlem"^[21]

Selected anthologies[]

• Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project University of Texas Press
• Soul: Black Power, Politics, and Pleasure NYU Press
• Heights of the Marvelous NYU Press
• Juncture: 25 Very Good Stories and 12 Excellent Drawings Soft Skull Press
• Da Capo Best Music Writing 2004: The Year's Finest Writing on Rock, Hip-hop, Jazz, Pop, Country, and More, DeCapo Press
• Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, Counterpoint Press
• Humana Festival 2014: The Complete Plays, Playscripts, Incorporated
• Action: The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Theatre, Simon & Schuster
• Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Three Rivers Press
• The African American Male, Writing, and Difference: A Polycentric Approach to African American Literature, Criticism, and History, State University of New York Press
• Meditations and Ascensions: Black Writers on Writing, Third World Press
• Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy: Theater from the Hip-hop Generation, Theatre Communications Group
• Bad Behavior, Random House
• Verse: An Introduction to Prosody, John Wiley & Sons Press
• Significations of Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of a Black Film, UMI Press
• So Much Things to Say: 100 Poets from the First Ten Years of the Calabash International Literary Festival, Akashic Books
• Black Men In Their Own Words, Crown Publishers
• Bulletproof Diva, Knopf Doubleday
• Race Manners: Navigating the Minefield Between Black and White Americans, Skyhorse Publishing
• In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights, Umbrage Press
• Listen Again: a Momentary History of Pop Music, Duke University Press

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[]

• Makandal (Composer: Yosvaney Terry, stage design and costumes by Edouard Duval Carrie, directed by Lars Jan) Harlem Stage
• Blackamoor Angel (Composer: Deidre Murray; directed by Karin Coonrod) Bard Spiegeltent/Joseph Papp Public Theater
• Kingmaker (Composer: Toshi Reagon) BRIC Arts Media
• Perfect Beauty (Composer: Tamar Muskal)
• Better the Summit to See (omposer: Joseph C. Phillips Jr.)Numinous
• Faggot's Ball (Composer: Tamar-kali)

Music[]

Solo albums[]

• Cornbread, Cognac, Collard Green Revolution
• Rux Revue Sony/550 Music
• Apothecary Rx Giant Step
• Good Bread Alley Thirsty Ear
• Homeostasis CD Baby

Singles[]

• "Miguel" (Sony) 1999
• "Wasted Seed" (Sony) 1999
• "Fall Down" (Sony) 1999
• "No Black Male Show" (Sony) 1999
• "Good Bread Alley" (Thirsty Ear) 2006
• "Thadius Star" (Thirsty Ear) 2006
• "Living Room" (Thirsty Ear) 2006
• "Disrupted Dreams" (Giant Step) 2010
• "Eleven More Days" (Giant Step) 2010
• "I Got A Name" (Giant Step) 2010
• "Living Room" (Kevin Shields Remix) (Mercury) 2013

12-inch singles[]

• "Lamentations (You, Son)" Giant Step Records

EP[]

• (forthcoming)

Collaborations[]

• Sweeper Don't Clean My Streets Reg E. Gaines Polygram
• Eargasms Vol. 1
• 70 Years Coming R. L. Burnside Bongload/Acid Blues Records
• Our Souls Have Grown Deep Like the Rivers: Black Poets Read Their Works, Rhino
• Bow Down to the Exit Sign David Holmes Go! Beat
• Love Each Other Yukihiro Fukutomi Sony/ Japan
• Optometry DJ Spooky Thirsty Ear Recordings
• The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Studio Cast Recording)
• Inradio 5 Morningwatch 2004
• Thirsty Ear Presents: Blue Series Sampler (Thirsty Ear)
• Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work, 1888-2006 Box Set Shout! Factory (2006)
• More Than Posthuman-Rise of the Mojosexual Cotillion Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, TruGROID
• The Dogs Are Parading David Holmes Universal
• Life Forum Gerald Clayton Concord Jazz
• Tributary Tales Gerald Clayton
• Tomorrow Comes The Harvest Jeff Mills Tony Allen Decca Records
• Humanist Rob Marshall Ignition Records

Songwriter[]

• Mckay Stephanie McKay Universal Music

Contemporary Dance (text & music)[]

Movin' Spirits Dance Co.[]

• Kick The Boot, Raise the Dust An' Fly; A Recipe for Buckin (chor: Marlies Yearby, co-authors: Sekou Sundiata, Laurie Carlos, music: Craig Harris ) Performance Space 122, Maison des arts de Créteil (France)
• Totin' Business & Carryin' Bones (chor. Marlies Yearby), Performance Space 122, Maison des arts de Créteil (France)
• The Beautiful (chor: Marlies Yearby, co-author:Laurie Carlos), Judson Church, Tribeca Performing Arts Center
• Of Urban Intimacies (chor: Marlies Yearby), Lincoln Center Serious Fun!, Central Park Summerstage, National Tour
• That Was Like This/ This Was Like That(chor: Marlies Yearby, music: Grisha Coleman), Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Central Park Summerstage, National Tour

Anita Gonzalez[]

• Yanga, (chor: Anita Gonzalez, music: Cooper-Moore, composer), Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Montclair State College

Jane Comfort & Co.[]

• Asphalt (dir/chor: Jane Comfort; vocal score: Toshi Reagon, music: DJ Spooky, David Pleasant, Foosh, dramaturgy: Morgan Jenness, costumes: Liz Prince, lighting design: David Ferri ), Joyce Theater, National Tour

Urban Bush Women[]

• Soul Deep (chor: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, composer: David Murray), Walker Arts Center, National Tour
• Shelter (chor: Jawole Willo Jo Zollar, music: Junior Gabbu Wedderburn) International Tour
• Hair Stories (chor: Jawole Willa jo Zollar) BAM Theater/Esplanade Theater (Singapore) Hong Kong Arts Festival

Jubilation! Dance Co.[]

• Sweet In The Morning (chor: Kevin Iega Jeff)

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater[]

• Shelter (chor: Jawole Willo Jo Zollar, music: Junior Gabbu Wedderburn) City Center, International Tour
• Uptown (chor: Matthew Rushing) Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
• Four Corners (chor: Ronald K. Brown) Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 2014

Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble (Ailey II)[]

• Seeds (chor: Kevin Iega Jeff) Aaron Davis Hall, Apollo Theater, National Tour

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Theater[]

• The Artificial Nigger (chor: Bill T. Jones) Arnie Zane Bill T. Jones Dance Co; music: Daniel Bernard Roumain National Tour

Roberta Garrison Co.[]

• Certo! (chor: Roberta Garrison, music: Mathew Garrison) Scuola di Danza Mimma Testa in Trastevere (Rome, Italy) Teatro de natal infantil Raffaelly Beligni (Naples, Italy)

M'Zawa Dance Co.[]

• Seeking Pyramidic Balance/Flipmode (chor: Maia Claire Garrison) 651 Arts

Robert Moses Kin[]

• Helen (chor: Robert Moses) Yerba Buena Performing Arts Center
• Nevabawarldapece (chor: Robert Moses) Yerba Buena Performing Arts Center

Topaz Arts Dance[]

• Dreamfield (chor: Paz Tanjuaquio) Hudson River Park NY

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."^[22] 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™ [23]
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[]

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^[7] as well as NPR and co-wrote and performed in the national touring production of NPR Presents Water±, directed by Kenny Leon.

Performance Art Exhibitions/Curator[]

• The Whitney Museum "Beat Culture and the New America, 1950-1965"
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum "Carrie Mae Weems: Live"
• Thread Waxing Space "Sacred Music"
• The Foundry Theater "Roundtable on Hope"
• The Kitchen "Sapphire: Black Wings & Blind Angels"
• Harlem Stage "We Da People Cabaret"
• The New School "Comrades and Lovers" Glenn Ligon
• Mass MoCA "Until" Nick Cave
• Kennedy Center/Spoleto Festival "Grace Notes"; Carrie Mae Weems
• Grace Farms "Past Tense"; Carrie Mae Weems
• Lincoln Center "The Baptism"; Carrie Mae Weems (Experimental short film tribute to John Lewis and C.T.Vivian, written and performed by Rux, and directed by Carrie Mae Weems

Selected Directorial Credits[]

• "Chapter & Verse" by Carl Hancock Rux /Dixon Place; Nuyorican Poets Cafe
• "Mycenaean" by Carl Hancock Rux CalArts/BAM Next Wave Festival
• "Third Ward" by Tish Benson/Nuyorican Poets Cafe
• "Girl Group" by Tish Benson, Latasha Nevada Diggs, Sarah Jones/Aaron Davis Hall
• "Stranger On Earth" by Carl Hancock Rux/ Live Arts; Harlem Stage
• "Poesia Negra" by Carl Hancock Rux /RedCat; Lincoln Center; Aaron Davis Hall; BAM Next Wave. *"Who 'Dat Who Killed Better Days Jones?" by (Various Artists)/ Aaron Davis Hall
• "blu" by Virginia Grise/ New York Theatre Workshop
• "Welcome to Wandaland" by Ifa Bayeza/ Rights & Reasons Theater/Brown University
• "String Theory" by Ifa Bayeza/ Rights & Reasons Theater, Brown University
• "Bunky Johnson Out of The Shadows" by Ifa Bayeza/Shadows on the Teche

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]}

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.^[24] Marcellus Carlyle Rux is listed in History of the American Negro and his Institutions.^[25]

Rux's younger brother is a New York City Public School Teacher and his cousin a New York City middle school principal.^[26] Rux's older brother died of AIDS-related complications.^[27]

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.^[28]

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.,^[29] 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,^[30] 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.<ref>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. (/ref)

Rux is a member of the Take Back the Night organization, a foundation seeking to end sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual abuse, and all other forms of sexual violence.^{[citation needed]} Rux was named both a "Global and National Changemaker" by the We Make Change movement: an international organization of social entrepreneurs, NGO leaders, activists, artists, professionals, and others from across the world, committed to connecting individuals with the people and charities fighting for the causes they care about via volunteer work, exchange of ideas and international developmental projects with a range of charities. Rux was commissioned by Lincoln Center to create a "poetic tribute" to the late Senator, John Lewis, an American politician, statesman, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966, and leader who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020; and fellow civil rights activist, C.T. Vivian, an American minister, author, and close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr.. Both men were members of the groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington; fulfilled many key roles in the civil rights movement and its actions to end legalized racial segregation in the United States; and in 1965, led the first of three Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in an incident which became known as Bloody Sunday. Rux turned his commissioned tribute to both men into a short film directed by artist Carrie Mae Weems with original music by Meshell Ndegeocello titled, "The Baptism". The film streams on social media networks and tours throughout galleries and museums nationally.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Carl Hancock Rux at Internet Off-Broadway Database