Akinlana is an art, musical and cultural activist. His life's passion is to use his creativity and knowledge toward the expansion of an inclusive worldview. In the 1980s he founded two art companies dedicated to generating visual creations that document and highlight the untold and mostly unappreciated legacy of Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples' contributions to the American landscape.

In 1988, he graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago were he majored in painting and drawing. Marcus went on to create collaborative community murals with Chicago Public Art Group, helping to restore and beautify Chicago’s urban landscape.

Akinlana has fabricated over 18 national public art monuments. Some major multimedia installations he has completed can be found at Indianapolis, Philadelphia & Denver International Airports, the Denver Performing Arts Complex, the Aurora Municipal Center in Colorado, the T angipahoa African American Museum in Hammond and the London Avenue Canal Floodwalls in New Orleans. Interspersed within his art has always been a profound love of music, which he has translated to incorporating drumming into his artistic endeavors.

As an Olòrìṣà through his institute, Ile Ẹkọ Àṣà Y orùbá Ni New Orleans, Akinlana has implemented sacred ancestral work to mitigate the myriad of problems facing his clients and community and to help them survive and thrive. As a 2023 V oqal Fellow, he orchestrated the Bulbancha Rise Up, a series of Sankofa-driven events for communal gathering and healing through ritual work, music and art.