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Ancient, modern, future worlds meet
in Carl Hancock Rux’s ‘Mycenaean’

By MARK STEFFEN
Carolina Performing Arts Series

CHAPEL HILL — The Urban Voices segment of the 2005-2006 Carolina Performing Arts Series will continue Jan. 27 with a multidisciplinary performance by Carl Hancock Rux, a songwriter, poet, novelist, playwright and essayist.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill series will present his performance piece “Mycenaean” at 8 p.m. in Memorial Hall.

Rux was declared by The New York Times to be “one of 30 artists under 30 most likely to influence culture in the next 30 years.” The Village Voice named him one of “eight writers on the verge of impacting the literary landscape.”

Rux and other performers will enact “Mycenaean” in music, urban dance, critical narrative and performance poetry. Film and video installation also are incorporated.

Part opera, part Greek tragedy, “Mycenaean” employs elements of mythology and popular culture, drawing on text from Rux’s epic poem of the same name and his novel “Asphalt.” Featuring characters from Bronze Age Mycenae and a near-future, post-apocalyptic New York City, the piece reveals parallel lessons about urbanity’s effects on society.

“Mycenaean” will be presented as part of the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music next year.

“Asphalt” made Time Out New York magazine’s 2004 Best Books of Summer list. Rux’s influences range from Harlem storefront churches to his travels through Africa, Asia and Europe. For more information about the artist, visit www.carlhancockrux.com.

Single tickets – $15 to $35 for the public and $10 for Carolina students – will be available beginning Jan. 4 by calling (919) 843-3333, or from the Memorial Hall box office on Cameron Avenue.

The box office is closed for the holidays until Jan. 4. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Carolina students should call the box office for purchasing information. Series subscriptions also are available.

On performance days, the box office is open from 10 a.m. until intermission weekdays and noon until intermission on weekends. For more information, e-mail performingarts@unc.edu or visit www.unc.edu/performingarts.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/memorial/carl_hancock_rux.jpg

Carolina Performing Arts Series contact: Jennifer Smith, (919) 966-3834 or jwsmith@unc.edu
News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589