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Q. R. Hand Jr.

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

Biography

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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

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

Works

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Collections

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  • 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

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

Contributor

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  • 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

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

Plays

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  • 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

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  1. ^ a b "Hand reaches out to Fans". Vallejo Times Herald. 25 January 2008. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d "About Q.R. Hand, Jr". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e Daly, Clara-Sophia (18 January 2021). "Q.R. Hand Jr., a poet of jazz-like verses, dies at age 83". Mission Local. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e Fagone, Jason (4 January 2021). "Beloved Bay Area Black poet who blended verse and jazz dies at 83". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Quentin R. Hand Jr. '58". Amherst Magazine. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  6. ^ "Harlem's Latest Pharmacist". The New York Age. 2 July 1932. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  7. ^ Calvin, Floyd J. (31 December 1932). "New York pharmacists operating new type of store; wins patrons". The Pittsburgh Courier. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  8. ^ a b Simon, Jean Louise (14 September 1935). "Quiet Ceremony Marks Hand-Chestnut Wedding in Brooklyn". The New York Age. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  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.
  10. ^ a b Pernell, Adina (23 March 2017). "Local beat poetry legend Q.R. Hand visits campus". The Guardsman. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  11. ^ a b Yovanna, Bieberich (19 September 2007). "Words and Music". Petaluma Argus Courier. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  12. ^ a b c "Vartnaw and Hand to Read at Poetry Series April 15". Independent Coast Observer. 9 April 2010. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  13. ^ Worsham, Doris (14 April 1989). "Ain't No Use June Bug's new story is not his best". Oakland Tribune. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  14. ^ "Ain't No Use In Goin' Home". Oakland Tribune. 23 April 1989. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  15. ^ Macleod, Beatrice (17 November 1988). "Junebug Jones gives the Jabbo to our world's injustices". Ithaca Journal. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  16. ^ "Ain't No Use in Goin Home". The Ithaca Journal. 1 December 1988. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  17. ^ a b Smith, Dean (18 August 1989). "Ain't No Use About Veterans". Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved 25 October 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 25 October 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 25 October 2023.
  20. ^ "Rise In Power Q.R. Hand Jr". Clarion Alley Mural Project. 15 January 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  21. ^ "Wall + Response". Clarion Alley Mural Project. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  22. ^ a b "Awards & Award Winners". PEN Oakland. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  23. ^ "Schedule of Events". Petaluma Argus Courier. 12 September 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  24. ^ "Berkeley Poet Honored". The Berkeley Gazette. 18 June 1980. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  25. ^ Templeton, David (13 September 2018). "Poetry on Parade". Petaluma Argus Courier. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  26. ^ "Poetry Reading". The Sacramento Bee. 18 May 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  27. ^ "Music and Poetry". The San Francisco Examiner. 14 April 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  28. ^ Elwood, Phillip (22 September 1978). "Hot Notes". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  29. ^ "Stage". The San Francisco Examiner. 8 May 1979. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  30. ^ "Poetry Readings". The Oakland Tribune. 12 December 1982. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  31. ^ "Hippies Return". The San Francisco Examiner. 17 April 1987. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  32. ^ Zimmermann, Gretchen (24 January 2023). "Grassroots Vallejo radio station promotes local talent". The Vallejo Sun. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  33. ^ McCourt, Sean (1 June 2022). "Just read it Beat Generation honored with readings in Vallejo". Vallejo Times Herald. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  34. ^ "Keeping Hope Alive". Res Artis. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
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