Carl Hancock Rux () is an American poet, playwright, singer-songwriter, novelist, essayist, as well as multidisciplinary performing and installation artist. He is the author of a collection of poetry, Pagan Operetta, a novel, Asphalt and the play Talk, 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, Iké Udé's aRude Magazine, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art (founded by fellow art critics Okwui Enwezor, Chika Okeke-Agulu and Salah Hassan) and American Theatre (magazine), among others. Rux's writings and monographs on visual art include essays on the work of conceptual artist Glenn Ligon ( I Stand in My Place With My Own Day Here: Site-Specific Art at The New School, edited by Frances Richards with a foreword by Lydia Matthews and introduction by Silvia Rocciolo and Erik Stark); the introduction for Nick Cave’s Until; and the Guggenheim Museum’s Carrie Mae Weems retrospective.

Rux is also a musician who has recorded several albums, singles, and mixed tapes since the release of his Sony 550 cd, Rux Revue. Rux's mixed media works (with frequent collaborator, visual artist and sculptor, Dianne Smith) have been included in the Uptown Triennale at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery; as well as the Archer Aymes Retrospective, exploring the legacy of emancipation through an immersive art installation featuring a concert performance by mezzo soprano Alicia Hall Moran and pianist Aaron Diehl, presented as one component of a three-part series commemorating Park Avenue Armory and at the Frieze Art Fair at London's Serpentine Gallery.

Rux is co-artistic director of Mabou Mines, associate artistic director at Harlem Stage The Gate House, resident artist at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts where annually he conceives and stages its campus-wide Juneteenth festival, multidisciplinary editor at The Massachusetts Review.

Rux has been a faculty member at Brown University, The New School for Social Research, Yale University, The University of Iowa and is the former Head of the MFA Writing for Performance Program at CalArts where he continues to teach.