Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Releases THE BAPTISM (RHETORIC)

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts today released The Baptism (rhetoric), a new iteration of the visual poem tribute inspired by the legacies of civil rights leaders John Lewis and C.T. Vivian, by award-winning poet and artist Carl Hancock Rux, directed by visual artist Carrie Mae Weems, and now featuring a brand-new score by GRAMMY nominee Meshell Ndegeocello.

The original tribute, released last fall as The Baptism, featured Rux's recitation of the three-part poem accompanied by Weems' experimental imagery and direction, making for an existential and meditative exploration of the legacies of two towering icons and activists.

The new short film experience, along with the original piece, is available to view for free at TheBaptismPoem.org.

Speaking to the creation of the film, poet Carl Hancock Rux said, "... any and all forms of resistance require company. My voice needed an eye and a tonality. Carrie Mae Weems was the first artist I turned to, asking that she might film this poem, so that it existed as something more than words on paper; to help me see Lewis and Vivian through a clear and certain lens. The second person I asked to join me in this struggle was Meshell Ndegeocello because her music consistently offers a balm to the soul, even in moments of fear and uncertainty. The rest was simply a willingness to offer myself up to a tongue, a language, a means of articulation unity inspired."

The Baptism (rhetoric) heightens the impactful recitation of the poem and magnifies its powerful themes of legacy and life after death, aided by Weems' new visual direction and Ndegeocello's original score. "I wanted to sonically create ease and lift so that the words [of the poem] could permeate one beyond their wake state, to provide the succor it gave me to confront my fear, and to re-examine within my dream state the vision of death so that I may truly begin to live," said Meshell Ndegeocello.

In celebration of the enduring legacies of Lewis and Vivian in the U.S. and around the world, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights (The Center) will host a virtual screening and panel discussion of The Baptism original tribute film on Tuesday, February 9 at 3 p.m. ET, in partnership with Lincoln Center. The panel features Carl Hancock Rux and other esteemed panelists. The conversation will be moderated by Ellen McGirt, Senior Editor at Fortune Magazine and writer of the daily column raceAhead. Audiences can tune in on Lincoln Center's Facebook and Youtube channels as well as The Center's Facebook and Youtube pages.

In addition to the film tributes, audiences can access an intimate interview with Rux conducted by Carrie Mae Weems, available at TheBaptismPoem.org. In this telling conversation, Rux shares the profound and pivotal moments of his life that shaped him as a person, activist, and artist who grew to find inspiration in leaders like Lewis, who found "a way of speaking to the universe and through time."

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