Man About Town with Donn Carl Harper WITH AUTHOR,POET, MUSICIAN, MARVIN TATE

Marvin Tate has the makings of a legend. He's picked out a crooked path between hard-won lesson and spiritual revelation. He has an academic background in writing, acting, singing and musical theater, but his mythic, nicknamed-riddled brand of storytelling began as largely unrehearsed, spontaneous recitations to family members and kids at school. The youngest of six (including a fraternal twin), Marvin quoted Gwendolyn Brookes at 11, improvised lines, repeating protean fables whispered to him by the ghosts who fill his textural world. His balancing act between possession and exorcism has spanned decades -- once known as "Chinaman," a poet cracking jokes and fabricating tales in the gangway and on the playground, considered by most a madman, a preacher.

complicated man.

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