Carl Hancock Rux is a literary Renaissance man. Having garnered accolades in spoken word poetry and playwriting, he is now establishing himself as a novelist. A legendary voice at NYC's Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and Obie-award winning author of the play Talk, Rux somehow found time to speak to us at Street -- albeit in between shows, because he also has an album, Apothecary Rx , out as well.
Rux's latest novel, Asphalt, tells the story of a young reserved DJ, Racine, as he wanders through a devastated and war-torn New York. Racine embarks on relationships with several curious characters in a decaying house in post-war Brooklyn.
He meets Manny, the sexually ambiguous leader of the pack with an elegant and vast knowledge of architectural history. Manny punctuates the story with his drug-induced exploits at the lush and intense house parties at which Racine creates the sonic background. Racine also finds complicated love and denial in Couchette, a dramatic exotic dancer unwilling to accept her past.
In the end, we realize Racine is quiet because of his own fear of confronting reality. In Asphalt , Rux creates a novel with beautiful urban lyricism.
While it is clearly influenced by the conventions of the classical cannon, Rux blends Greek mythology with modern sensibilities. The story is based on Hippolytus' Phaedra as re-written by J. Hippolytus' is thrown from Mycenae and on his journey he is attacked and dismembered by an overbearing, demonic monster.
