With his smooth, sensuous baritone voice and kudos including being elected by The New York Times Magazine as ‘One of 30 Artists Under the Age of 30 Most Likely to Influence Culture Over the Next 30 Yearsâ€, Carl Hancock Rux is hot property on the literary scene.
Best known for his performance poetry, Rux has published poems, short fiction, plays, essays and, recently, a novel called Asphalt.
‘I never accepted the title ‘spoken word artist’ as it relates to me and my work, primarily because it’s too narrow a definition of what I do, and also because I think of it as a catchphrase of discrimination, a way for academics and the media to ghettoise a younger, multicultural generation of writers by making a distinction between them and canonised Western poets. The word missing from ‘spoken word’ is poetry, and I don’t think that’s unintentional,†says Rux.
He was born and raised in Harlem, New York, in various foster homes — some of his band members are friends who date back to this time in his life. Later he attended Columbia University, studying American and European literature so that ‘I could learn those traditions, then un-learn them and make my own traditions of writing,†says Rux, whose style is form-breaking and fresh.
Increasingly he incorporates elements of hip-hop, jazz and R&B into his live poetry readings and in, 1999, he released his debut album, Rux Revue. Apothecary RX followed five years later.
With his unique synthesis of music and poetry, called postmodern hip-bop, Rux is a considered, self-conscious artist. His body of work is intelligently informed by the disparities in the world. ‘Black male identity is mainstream. The black male body has become a valuable commodity in America — our iconography alone is worth billions of dollars in entertainment, sports, et cetera — and this perceived identity is accessed by anyone who wants to access it and use it for whatever reason they like. At the core of that manufactured identity is another reality that points to the black male in America, Europe and Africa as proportionally disadvantaged. That disparity can never be addressed enough,†says Rux.
Visiting South Africa for the first time, Rux is excited: ‘I would’ve come if they’d have thrown a rock through my window with a note telling me there was a toy sailboat and a deflated life vest at New York harbour, waiting to take me to Jo’burg.â€
He has experienced elements of South Africa before — he talks fondly of the only South African restaurant in New York, Madiba, Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, watching Nelson and Winnie Mandela drive through the city and the poetry of Breyten Breytenbach.
Participating in a festival celebrating the African diaspora, Urban Voices, is significant in relation to Rux’s experience of South Africa. But he figures the diaspora somewhat differently: ‘Intellectually I understand my connect to an African Diaspora, but that intellectual connection is not what informs my work. It’s the spiritual understanding I have of my African heritage, my relationship with people whose languages pre-date conceptual Western thought, that drives me backward toward my ancestry and propels me forward into an Afro-futurism that impacts humanity.â€
The details
Carl Hancock Rux performs alongside ‘godfathers of hip-hop†The Last Poets, the up-and-coming poet Beau Sia and a smattering of local poets at the Urban Voices International Arts Festival of the Diaspora. See the festival in Jo’burg on July 22 and 23, Cape Town on July 24 and Durban on July 26. Book at Computicket. The musical component of the festival includes The Monty Alexander Trio with guest artists Ernest Ranglin and Tlahe Makhene playing at the Bassline in Jo’burg on July 29 and at the Baxter in Cape Town on July 30.