press

"Tate is a 42-year-old performance poet and teacher whose passion for prose seems to be rivaled only by his obsession with the various kinds of music Black folks have made through the decades. He's also an angry man who, through what he calls his "musical troupe," rants and fumes at the dichotomies of America and the social ills plaguing our society and Black culture...
Tate is a poet who has always probed the issues of Black society through words and music. A North Lawndale native and Farragut High School grad, he formed the first D-Settlement nine years ago, with the current group gelling within the last four years.
He first started reading poetry on the streets in 1970 before he went to UIC looking for Gwendolyn Brooks and Don L. Lee, only to find they weren't there. He matriculated through the poetry slam scene that was so popular in Chicago in the '80s, then he formed his first band, not surprisingly called the Poet-delics.
Married, with a daughter, Tate also teaches poetry at alternative high schools and juveline detention centers. His commitment to get the Black community to hear more music than hip hop and jazz led him to create a free six-week series of Black alternative music in conjunction with the Old Town School of Folk Music, where he also teaches."

from "Marvin Tate's S-Settlement Brings Back Social Relevance"
by Mark Ruffin, N'DIGO, May 9-15, 2002

"Tate's vocal tone is unique, at times resembling Capleton's forceful nyabinghi chants, and still other times running a cool soul vibe."

from "Marvelous Marvin"
by Dave Chamberlain, NewCityChicago.com

"Now that hip-hop is widely seen as a legitimate form of poetry - descended, like the blues, from oral traditions like spirituals and work songs - more and more spoken-word artists are exploring updated takes on what might be called the "blues aesthetic." Marvin Tate's meditations on liberation and apocalypse have a righteous, spiritual soulfulness reminiscent of the Last Poets..."

from "The Reader's Guide to the 22nd Annual Chicago Blues Festival"
by Bill Dahl and David Whiteis, Chicago Reader, June 10, 2005

"...[T]hey are described as a "funk band", however in my view, that is a pretty limiting term..."EDUTAINMENT" is much more of an appropriate description for the music of Marvin Tate's D-Settlement..."

from email correspondence

"By merging ferociously honest poetry with various black musical traditions, Tate stands as heir to Chicagoan Oscar Brown Jr., the veteran urban griot whose lyrics long have decried racism and social injustice...Further, the literary power of Tate's writing cannot be denied..."
"I view these songs as little movies, scenes that tell you what's really happening out there," says Tate. "Not everyone can take that, but we're hoping some people can."

from "Gleefully ignoring traditional music boundaries"
by Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune, May 29, 2000

Marvin Tate's D-Settlement listed as a Local Band You Admire

from "Women Who Rock Chicago"
by Jennifer Wehunt, UR Chicago, Colume 7, Issue 10