For over thirty years, Marvin Tate (b. 1959) has been active as a self-taught multidisciplinary artist, community activist, and art educator, exploring themes ranging from personal narratives to social justice. A native of the West Side of Chicago, Tate has had his work reviewed in the Huffington Post, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Reader, and he has received awards from Young Chicago Authors, The Poetry Foundation, and most recently (2024) from Elastic Arts, just to name a few. His goal as an artist is to empower marginalized communities, with a special focus on youth, to be agents for long-term change. He demonstrates this commitment by introducing these communities to recyclable materials to create art, and  as an Artist-In-Resident with Theatre Y, an avant-garde theater company now based in Lawndale.