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==