Quentin Roosevelt Hand, Jr. (1937 – December 31, 2020), known professionally as Q.R. Hand, was an African-American poet. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Biography

Quentin Roosevelt Hand, Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1937. ^{[2] [5]} His father, Dr. Quentin Roosevelt Hand, a native of Savannah, Georgia who was educated at Columbia, operated Hand's Ethical Pharmacy in Harlem, ^{[6] [7]} and his mother, Catherine Elizabeth Chestnut, ^{[8] [9]} was a writer. ^[4] His parents married in 1935, ^[8] and the family lived in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood. ^[3] Q.R. Hand, Jr. had two younger siblings, a brother named John and a sister named Margaret. ^[4] He was educated at Northfield Mount Hermon in Massachusetts ^[3] and briefly attended Amherst College in 1954. ^[5] He moved to San Francisco's Mission District, performing in the local poetry scene and working as a mental health counselor for the Progress Foundation. ^[3] His poetry was influenced by his work in the Black liberation movement and his love of jazz, ^[3] and is considered part of the San Francisco Renaissance and Beat poetry movements. ^{[10] [2]} He played saxophone, ^[11] and performed spoken word with musical accompaniment as a member of the Word Wind Chorus with Brian Auerbach, Lewis Jordan, and Reginald Lockett. ^[12] Hand co-authored an anti-war play with Nayo-Barbara Malcolm Watkins and John O'Neal entitled Ain't No Use in Goin' Home, Jodie's Got Your Gal and Gone about the Black military experience. ^{[13] [14]} Stage productions included the Black Box Theatre at Cornell in 1988, ^{[15] [16]} Wake Forest University in 1989 in Winston-Salem, ^[17] the Oakland Ensemble Theatre in 1989 and 7 Stages Theatre in Atlanta in 1990. ^{[18] [19]} Aaron Noble painted Hand's poem "Hemisphere" on 40 Clarion Alley in 1995 as part of the Clarion Alley Mural Project. ^{[20] [21]} Hand received the PEN Oakland Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. ^[22]

Across his career he was a featured act at many venues including the Sonoma County Book Festival, ^[23] the Bay Area Poets and Music Festival at GLIDE, ^[24] the Petaluma Poetry Walk, ^{[25] [11]} Cafe Babar, ^[12] the Sacramento Poetry Center, ^[26] the Beat Museum, ^[27] San Francisco Metropolitan Arts Center, ^[28] Oakland Arts Festival, ^[29] the Roque Dalton Cultural Brigade, ^[30] and Golden Gate Park. ^[31] Hand moved to Vallejo, California, in 2003 where he performed his poetry at local venues like Listen and Be Heard and KZCT. ^{[1] [32]} Hand died in Vallejo on December 31, 2020, at age 83 from cancer. ^[4] He was honored posthumously at the 2022 Vallejo Beat Poetry Festival. ^[33]

Awards

• PEN Oakland's Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award (2012) ^[22]
• Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry by New Pacific Studio ^[34]

Works

Collections

• I Speak to the Poet in Man Jukebox Press. 1985. ^[2]
• How Sweet It Is Zeitgeist Press. 1996. ISBN  978-0929730554
• Whose Really Blues: New & Selected Poems Taurean Horn Press. 2007. ISBN  9780931552137
• Out of Nothing Black Freighter Press. 2021. ^[4]

Editor

• Hand, Q.R., and Ross, John, We Came to Play: Writings on Basketball North Atlantic Books. 1996. ISBN  9781556431623

Contributor

• Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing William Morrow & Company. 1968. ^[10]
• New American Underground Poetry, Vol 1: The Babarians of San Francisco - Poets from Hell Trafford Publishing, 2005 ISBN  9781412052702
• Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Omnibus Mystic Boxing Commission. 2022. ISBN  9781733548113

Music albums

• We Are of the Saying - Word Wind Chorus ^[12]

Plays

• Ain't No Use in Goin' Home, Jodie's Got Your Gal and Gone: Sayings from the Life and Writing of Junebug 'Jabbo' Jones, Vol. III ^[17]

References