Marvin K. White, MDiv, is currently the Full-Time Minister of Celebration at the historic Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, CA. He is a graduate of the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA and the inaugural Public Theologian in Residence (’17-’18) at First Church Berkeley. Marvin is an ordained deacon at City of Refuge UCC. He was co-facilitator of the “Faith Leaders Round Table” at The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society and was a recent recipient (’17-’18) of the YBCA Fellowship, “What Does Equity Look Like?”, a program that brought together creative citizens from across the Bay Area – artists and everyday people alike – to engage in a yearlong process of inquiry, dialogue, and project generation.
He is the author of four collections of poetry published by RedBone Press: Our Name Be Witness; Status; and the two Lammy-nominated collections last rights and nothin’ ugly fly. His poetry has been anthologized in The Road Before Us: 100 Black Gay Poets; My Brothers Keeper; Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians: New Gay Writing; Things Shaped in Passing; Sojourner: Writing in the Age of AIDS; Bum Rush the Page; Role Call; and Think Again, as well as other local and national publications. He is the co-editor of If We Have to Take Tomorrow: HIV, Black Men & Same Sex Desire.
His poetry has been adapted for stage at San Francisco’s Theater Rhinoceros and he has performed his work himself at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as a part of their 2014 BAN7 Festival. As a former member of the critically acclaimed theater troupe The Pomo Afro Homos’ he has performed nationally and internationally.
Beginning as a Teaching Artist for WritersCorps, he continues to lead creative arts and writing workshops for a range of audiences, from youth centers for runaway kids to black gay support groups to literary conference, faith communities and social justice organizations.
White is co-founder of B/GLAM (Black Gay Letters and Arts Movement), a Bay Area, California organization whose goal was to preserve, present and incubate black gay artistic expressions. He is a graduate of the national African-American poetry fellowship and organization, Cave Canem; and sits on the board of Fire & Ink, a national black LGBT writer’s organization. A public theologian and community-based artist, he is articulating a vision of social, prophetic and creative justice through his work as a poet, artist, teacher, facilitator, activist, community organizer, preacher, homemaker, cake baker, and Facebook Statustician.
