Quentin R. Hand

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

Biography Quentin Roosevelt Hand Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1937. and his mother, Catherine Elizabeth Chestnut, was a writer. 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. 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. Stage productions included the Black Box Theatre at Cornell in 1988, Wake Forest University in 1989 in Winston-Salem, Aaron Noble painted Hand's poem "Hemisphere" on 40 Clarion Alley in 1995 as part of the Clarion Alley Mural Project. Hand received the PEN Oakland Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. the Bay Area Poets and Music Festival at GLIDE, the Petaluma Poetry Walk, Cafe Babar, the Beat Museum, San Francisco Metropolitan Arts Center, Oakland Arts Festival, the Roque Dalton Cultural Brigade, and Golden Gate Park. Hand moved to Vallejo, California, in 2003 where he performed his poetry at local venues like Listen and Be Heard and KZCT. Hand died in Vallejo on December 31, 2020, at age 83 from cancer.

Awards PEN Oakland's Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award (2012) Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry by New Pacific Studio

Works

Collections I Speak to the Poet in Man Jukebox Press. 1985. New American Underground Poetry, Vol 1: The Babarians of San Francisco - Poets from Hell Trafford Publishing, 2005 Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Omnibus Mystic Boxing Commission. 2022.

Music albums We Are of the Saying - Word Wind Chorus