Q. R. Hand Jr.

Q. R. Hand
Reading at the San Francisco Public Library in 2018
Born
Quentin Roosevelt Hand Jr.

1937 (1937)
Brooklyn, New York, US
DiedDecember 31, 2020(2020-12-31) (aged 83)
OccupationPoet

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

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

  1. 1 2 "Hand reaches out to Fans". Vallejo Times Herald. January 25, 2008. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "About Q. R. Hand, Jr". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Daly, Clara-Sophia (January 18, 2021). "Q.R. Hand Jr., a poet of jazz-like verses, dies at age 83". Mission Local. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Fagone, Jason (January 4, 2021). "Beloved Bay Area Black poet who blended verse and jazz dies at 83". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  5. 1 2 "Quentin R. Hand Jr. '58". Amherst Magazine. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Harlem's Latest Pharmacist". The New York Age. July 2, 1932. p. 10. Archived from the original on April 25, 2026. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  7. ↑ Calvin, Floyd J. (December 29, 1932). "New York Pharmacists Operating New Type of Store; Wins Patrons". Pittsburgh Courier. New York (published December 31, 1932). p. 13. Archived from the original on April 25, 2026. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  8. 1 2 Simon, Jean Louise (September 14, 1935). "Quiet Ceremony Marks Hand-Chestnut Wedding in Brooklyn". The New York Age. p. 5. Archived from the original on April 25, 2026. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  9. ↑ "United States 1950 Census", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XT5-WXY3 : Thu Oct 05 09:02:46 UTC 2023), Entry for John and Margaret, 13 April 1950. (subscription required)
  10. 1 2 Pernell, Adina (March 23, 2017). "Local beat poetry legend Q.R. Hand visits campus". The Guardsman. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  11. 1 2 Yovanna, Bieberich (September 19, 2007). "Words and Music". Petaluma Argus Courier. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  12. 1 2 3 "Vartnaw and Hand to Read at Poetry Series April 15". Independent Coast Observer. April 9, 2010. p. 20. Archived from the original on April 25, 2026. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  13. ↑ Worsham, Doris (April 14, 1989). "Ain't No Use June Bug's new story is not his best". Oakland Tribune. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Ain't No Use In Goin' Home". Oakland Tribune. April 23, 1989. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  15. ↑ Macleod, Beatrice (November 17, 1988). "Junebug Jones gives the Jabbo to our world's injustices". The Ithaca Journal. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Ain't No Use in Goin Home". The Ithaca Journal. December 1, 1988. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  17. 1 2 Smith, Dean (August 18, 1989). "Ain't No Use About Veterans". Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  18. ↑ "7 Stages Theatre (Atlanta, Ga.). ""Ain't No Use in Goin' Home, Jodie's Got Your Gal and Gone," program of the performance at 7 Stages Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia, March 7 - 25, 1990. (12 pages)." Georgia State University. Special Collections. 1990-03". Georgia State University. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  19. ↑ "Junebug Theater Project's "Ain't No Use in Goin' Home, Jodie's Got Your Gal and Gone," poster advertising the performance at 7 Stages Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia, March 7 - 25, 1990". Georgia State University. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Rise In Power Q.R. Hand Jr". Clarion Alley Mural Project. January 15, 2021. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  21. ↑ "Wall + Response". Clarion Alley Mural Project. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  22. 1 2 "Awards & Award Winners". PEN Oakland. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  23. ↑ "Schedule of Events". Petaluma Argus Courier. September 12, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  24. ↑ "Berkeley Poet Honored". The Berkeley Gazette. June 18, 1980. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  25. ↑ Templeton, David (September 13, 2018). "Poetry on Parade". Petaluma Argus Courier. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  26. ↑ "Poetry Reading". The Sacramento Bee. May 18, 2008. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  27. ↑ "Music and Poetry". San Francisco Examiner. April 14, 2015. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  28. ↑ Elwood, Phillip (September 22, 1978). "Hot Notes". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  29. ↑ "Stage". San Francisco Examiner. May 8, 1979. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  30. ↑ "Poetry Readings". Oakland Tribune. December 12, 1982. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  31. ↑ "Hippies Return". San Francisco Examiner. April 17, 1987. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  32. ↑ Zimmermann, Gretchen (January 24, 2023). "Grassroots Vallejo radio station promotes local talent". The Vallejo Sun. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  33. ↑ McCourt, Sean (June 1, 2022). "Just read it Beat Generation honored with readings in Vallejo". Vallejo Times Herald. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  34. ↑ "Keeping Hope Alive". Res Artis. October 9, 2020. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
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