Come to the fundraiser at the bookshop this Thursday!
Scroll down for details!

You can also
click here to donate on-line.

Q. R. Hand, a key poet here in the Bay Area for many decades, needs a hand as he battles the ravages of cancer with scant economic resources.

Turn out at Bird & Beckett on January 9th to hear colleagues read in his honor and to raise funds to sustain and cheer him through this difficult period. Click here to donate on-line.

Q. R. is a towering figure of the American beat culture, hailing from New York and published in 1968 in the groundbreaking anthology, Black Fire. The cd “We Are of the Saying” by the a cappella poetry ensemble wordWind Chorus, comprising Q. R., the late Reginald Lockett, Lewis Jordan and Brian Auerbach, was released in 2001, and a volume of Q. R.’s new and selected poetry, Whose Really Blues was published by Taurean Horn in 2008.

He has characterized his poetic voice as “a combination of jazz rhythm and blues and just talk, one of the things I got from the Black Arts Movement.”

Q. R. is living in Vallejo where he removed to when the Bay Area just became economically impossible for him. But he’s never left the local scene, often journeying down through the years to read his work at Bird & Beckett and other spots around the Bay, and we consider him a cornerstone of the area’s poetry culture. His work with wordWind and as an individual artist is admired far and wide. He’s venerated by many generations of poets.

The roster of participating poetswill include his partners in wordWind Chorus,  Brian Auerbach and Lewis Jordan, and a dozen other crucial artists, including San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck, Gail Mitchell, Loren Bell, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Josiah Luis Alderete, Tony Aldarondo, Bill Crossman, Jerry Ferraz, Q. R.’s friend and publisher, the poet Bill Vartnaw and many more.

Read more on Q.R. here: http://theguardsman.com/q-r-hand/