Marley Howard (She/They) is an Afro-Caribbean singer-songwriter and visual artist based in Harlem. Howard’s work is rooted in Black American traditions and blues aesthetics, often drawing on Afro-futurism, surrealism, and protest. Her music is steeped in the traditions of blues and folk. Growing up, Marley studied jazz for over a decade, culminating in a degree in Jazz voice from Oberlin Conservatory and curating her passion for Black American Music History and the preservation and archive of Black arts.

Marley’s art practice involves mixed-media pieces combining printmaking, collage, and painting. Her works offer a space to decontextualize and reimagine images, helping her to explore the tension between fantasy and lived history through a feminist lens. Marley’s reading often informs a lot of the work and process. A significant portion of their art revolves around the concepts of bodies and illness, influenced by their own struggles with chronic pain and disease. Her works have been found all across the East Coast in galleries.

Howard performs in several different configurations for her original music and is also a member of the Resistance Revival Chorus, a 25-piece group of femme singers focused on keeping protest music and freedom songs alive in New York City. Marley intends to create music and artworks that are intimate and honest, and her ultimate goal is for people to be able to see themselves in her art and reflect on the state of the people and the world.

Howard was a YoungArts voice finalist in 2020, a two-time recipient of the Oberlin Entrepreneurship Grant in 2024, and received a YoungArts Creative Grant in 2025. She is currently in production for her debut album and working on a new series of collage works.