Reading from whose really blues and other works
Literary Dialogs with Nina Serrano Featuring QR Hand Jr
In my interview with friend and fellow poet QR Hand Jr., he discusses his family, publications, and shares his poems recited in his one and only style. Once you have heard his poems, they are unforgettable for their musicality, beat and content.
Born in New York City in 1938, Q.R. Hand, Jr., immersed himself in the Big Apple world of jazz, ideas, and the active struggle for civil rights, social justice, and peace. He took off to San Francisco in the tumultuous, free wheeling late 1960’s. QR joined the Mission District and North Beach social justice poetry movement and soon became a very unique poetry performer, incorporating African American bebop elements of style. Over the next 5 decades, he performed in countless poetry venues, cafes and bars exerting a wide influence on spoken word and performance art in the Bay Area.
The author of three books of poetry, “i speak to the poet in man”, How Sweet It Is, and whose really blues. He has contributed to many anthologies and edited a collection of poets and essays called “We Came to Play, Writings on Basketball” with the late John Ross. Over the last 25 years, QR has been performing in the experimental poetry and jazz ensemble Word Wind. QR continues to fill notebooks and perform with his lively rhythmic reflections and resistance to our current national politics of hate and greed.
MEDIA – For photos & interviews: Paul Richards (510) 967 5577; paulrichards@estuarypress.com
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