Page "Richie Havens" Paragraph 1

Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children.

At an early age, he began organizing his neighborhood friends into street corner doo-wop groups and was performing with The McCrea Gospel Singers at 16.

At age 20, Havens left Brooklyn, seeking artistic stimulation in Greenwich Village.

" I saw the Village as a place to escape to, in order to express yourself ," he recalls.

" I had first gone there during the Beatnik days of the 1950s to perform poetry, then I drew portraits for two years and stayed up all night listening to folk music in the clubs.

It took a while before I thought of picking up a guitar.