Marvin Tate

Marvin Tate is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist, community activist, and art educator. Marvin has performed and recorded with Mike Reed’s “Flesh & Bone” in Poznan, Poland and at New York City’s Vision Fest 2016. His innovative style of spoken word and improvisation landed him a spot in the 2016 Hyde Park Jazz Festival. He recently collaborated with the French avant-garde composer and videographer Christophe Harvard and recorded “The Process” with the sound artist Joseph Clayton Mills. In addition to performing, Tate is also a noted poet/author and visual artist. In 2014 he was awarded a grant by the Poetry Foundation and the Prisoner Neighborhood Arts Program to teach poetry in the Statesville Correctional Center for adult men. His work as a performer stretches back nearly thirty years. Tate’s aim is to empower and build small communities within larger communities, to work as an agent for long-term change, and to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots by introducing underserved communities to recyclable art and singing in public spaces. Marvin grew up on the West side of Chicago and is invested in engaging youth from this area in artistic processes, specifically music, singing, and songwriting.