Asphalt
Hardback 2004
Rux's ASPHALT employs the language of neoclassicism, afro-futurism, Greek mythology and hip-hop lyricism to chart the journey of Racine, an ex-patriot DJ who returns home to a post-apocalyptic New York cityscape, and takes up residence in a dillapidated Brooklyn mansion with several disparate characters connected by parallel histories of pain and loss, echoing the apocalypse, which has befallen the city as a whole. Blurring the lines between reality and dreams, even the characters themselves, ASPHALT was selected by Time Out New York's Best Books of Summer 2004.
Talk
Paperback 2005
In the age of McCarthy and the Beat poets, a controversial African-American artist, Archer Aymes, became an overnight sensation for his first book, Mother and Son -- ten years later he was found dead in a prison cell. Decades later, a conference is formed and a panel comes together to debate the facts and importance of Aymes's life. Through Rux's vivid imagery, and meticulous research, his crackling dialogue and poetically constructed debate, we become participants at the conference, and listen very closely, achingly, as Rux scrutinizes the way we record history, skewers our reverence toward celebrity and academic authority, and dismantles our confidence in our own memory.
Pagan Operetta
2nd Edition
Paperback 2000
Upon publication of this debut collection of poetry and prose, Carl Hancock Rux was featured on the cover of The Village Voice, selected by its Literary Supplement as "One of Eight Writers On The Verge of Shaking Up The Literary Landscape". Many have called it "the defintive book of it's generation". Like a play, this collection begins with Act 1 and the memory of a matriarchal history, to a second act cavorting through the ghettos of Ghana, West Africa-to the third act, a sampling of Rux's politically charged text where he confronts Robert Mapplethorpe's portrayal of black men and makes myth of the Black South..he breathes life into the goddess Erzuile, maps the choreography of Urban Bush Women and refashions a Coon Gal for the 21st Century. The result is a lavish literary spectacle, a surrealistic story of death and rebirth.
Everything But The Burden
Paperback 2004
Edited by Greg Tate
"...Village Voice staffer Greg Tate assembles a bunch of African-American writers, critics, scholars and other creative types to give their perspectives on white culture's sampling of black culture. In 'Eminem: The New White Negro' ...Carl Hancock Rux chisels away at Slim Shady, making this take the end-all of deconstructive studies on the man. Rux compares Eminem to Pentheus, the heroic antihero of Euripides' The Bacchae, but a Pentheus with entirely different motives..."
Houston Chronicle
Action! Nuyorcian Theater Festival Anthology
Paperback 1997
Edited by Miguel Algarin, Lois Griffith
This anthology brings together 20 theater pieces by a culturally diverse group of artists, all of whom have been affiliated with the Nuyorican experience.The pieces in the book are grouped into several sections: "Inner City Tragedy and Politics," "Gender Plays," "Hip Hop and Rap," "Monologues and Performance Pieces," "Comedy and Satire," and "Musical Epics." "Action" is essential reading for those interested in multicultural studies, the urban experience, and innovative theater.Works include: Ishmael Reed's "Savage Wilds," Ntozake Shange's "I Live in Music", Miguel Pinero's "Playland Blues", Alvin Eng's "The Goong Hay Kid," Carl Hancock Rux's "Chapter & Verse", and more.
Listen Up! Spoken Word Poetry
Paperback 1999
Edited by Zoe Anglesey
Listen Up! features nine brilliant award-winning scribes who have ignited audiences worldwide with their soulful verse, bold alliterations, and sultry fusion of rhythm and rhyme--electrifying audiences as they
chant, sing, recite, and improvise their poetry and powerful point of
view. Pulitzer prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa writes the introduction to a collection packed with penetrating interviews on the craft of writing poetry,
insight into the art of performance, and on-target, off-guard photos of
the poets in action at history-making poetry slams. This unforgettable
collection is edited by the late poet/journalist, Zoe Anglesey (former editor of BOMB magazine and literary curator at the Brooklyn Moon, a trendy Fort Greene hang-out in the mid 90's where some of these writers were first exposed). These nine literary luminaries include Carl Hancock
Rux, Jessica Care Moore, Saul Williams, Tish Benson, Suheir Hammad, Willie Perdomo and others.
Open City Literary Journal #13
Paperback 2001
Edited by Thomas Beller , Joanna Yas, Daniel Pinchbeck
Taking the old literary magazine format and revitalizing it for a new generation's taste, Daniel Pinchbeck's Open City is one of the most heralded literary journals on the contemporary scene. "An athletic balance of hipster glamour and highbrow esoterica" (Village Voice). Issue #13 features fiction, poetry and prose contributions from Juliana Francis, Peter Nolan Smith, and Toby Talbot, among others. Also includes Carl Hancock Rux's play, "Geneva Cottrell, Waiting for the Dog to Die".
Heights of the Marvelous
Paperback 2001
Edited by Todd Colby
"...The poems of these definitive NYC poets really feel like ultimate edges, and the view from their heights is marvelous indeed. I love the intense diversity of the various poets
Konzepte 17
Paperback 1994.
This literary journal from Berlin features poetry and prose by Yoko Tawada, Janice Erlbaum, Rita Mae Brown, Carl Hancock Rux, Bob Holman, Regie Cabico, Albert Ostermaier. Published in German with English translation.
bum rush the page
Paperback, 2001
ed. by Tony Medina, Louis Reyes Rivera
To most readers, the hundreds of tightly rhymed, orally friendly poems here will read as "slam." But in his introduction, Medina, a poet and activist, takes great pains to separate the poems from slam's crowd-pleasing limitations, and uses the term "def jam" to describe the political spoken-word poetry he and Rivera, also a poet-activist, have collected. Medina's and Rivera's emphasis is on the poem and its subject matter, not the poet, which makes for a remarkably democratic anthology. Every poet has about the same page and a half of space. The book's design puts the poets' names in a very small type. Organized by subjects such as "Blood, I Say, Study our Story, Sing this Song," "Drums Drown Out Our Sorrow" and "Seeds of Resistance," most of the poems use urban imagery, tough talk and declaration. Most are identity-centered, anti-racist and pro-activist. Many focus on current events. Some readers will wish for more variation of theme and for more layered meanings, but the topicality and directness of the poems make this an ideal textbook for introductory poetry classes, especially for urban high school students, and for anyone interested in poetry as a social art.
Soul; Black Power, Politics, and Pleasure
Hardback/Paperback 1998
Edited by Monique Guillory, Richard C. Green
This collection of essays explores soul as "an abstract and evocative
site for identity formation". The book is divided
into four sections: black power, black politics, black pleasure,
and black conversation. The editors acknowledge that the volume
offers no exhaustive definition of soul. Their collection reveals the
complexity of soul as an idea, trope, category, or focus of inquiry. They
articulate the connection soul has to black history and community while
problematizing "the myth of black cultural unity that imbues blacks
with a certain quality of being by their race alone". The strengths of the anthology are its
diversity and breadth; the selections include contributions by authors
in a range of disciplines including African American studies, cultural
studies, history/politics, and literary studies, such as Angela Davis,
Tracie Morris, Tricia Rose, Carl Hancock Rux, Thulani Davis, Ishmael Reed and Houston
Baker.
