New York City, NY, September, 1970 – Manna Jo gives birth to a baby boy…….NY was a different place back then - bell bottoms, graffiti, afros and long hair, disco vs rock & roll, pimps, hustlers, junkies and alcoholics and musicians who were junkies and alcoholics with some talent. People mugged each other for flutes and groceries.

Ivan grew up with two radical parents – his mother, pro- all things civil rights, worked with MLK and Jesse Jackson and was a big part of anti-war movement.  There was a lot of peace, love, and hippie vibe in Ivan’s food-stamp broke ass family. His father, a struggling journalist for TV network news and newspapers, had best friends who were jazz musicians, reggae artists, and african folk artists.  He wound up opening up an art/music space in SoHo where artists would show their work and musicians would jam the night away.  Since SoHo was not a commercial money making scene at that time, the gallery space eventually closed.

A few years later the family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut to try the suburban lifestyle.  That led straight to the same rapid divorce craze that was very much a part of the 70's. Ivan moved back to the city with his father because he was more comfortable with stick ball, hanging out in the parks, and going on adventures in the subway tunnels and abandoned buildings.  House shuffling continued from the Lower East Side to Hell's Kitchen, to Washington Heights. The daily menu often consisted of pizze and Chinese food from the corner, or the soul food cooking of Isis, a burly Jamaican woman who was the household helper/ babysitter. She was fond of a good beating from time to time, if Ivan’s hyper personality started to annoy her - considered child abuse today, back then it was referred to as a needed break for the adults.  Ivan’s two siblings, younger brother Solomon and older sister Khadejha, were experiencing life with their father and Isis too. Sol decided to move to upstate New York to live with his mother and Khadejha started making it on her own by the time she was 16. This was also the time when Break Dancing was all the rage and Ivan became a part of that scene from the go...carrying scrap pieces of linoleum around to street corners and school yards, battling different crews, saving money to buy a bigger boom-box.  Learning new moves became Ivan’s life, that and well, that graffiti was a perfect outlet for art - the whole urban landscape was a free canvas and where anyone’s work could be viewed by thousands or millions of pedestrians and commuters.

At the start of high school Ivan began developing skills as an artist and was accepted to LaGuardia High School of the Arts. Leaving break dancing behind, he started training as a gymnast - an awesome experience that quickly set him apart from his hood friends and from Washington Heights.  Now considered an outcast, many street fights ensued but Ivan was pretty good with my hands because of dabbling in wrestling and karate. Growing up a small dude he realized early he had to know how to handle his biz and defend himself.  Art school, however, was a different world altogether - his friends were now musicians and actors, and his girlfriend was a beautiful ballerina.   It was artsy-fartsy wonderland.  Ivan discovered a new side of Ivan.  He studied fine art and loved it...he also threw himself into political science and started reading the NY Times every day, trying to make sense of things like The Nuclear Arms Race, Iran-Contra Affair, Ronald Reagan, racism, and a neighborhood and family filled with conflict.

However, sometimes the past cannot completely be left behind. He did, after all, grow up in the Heights where drugs and more drugs were the norm. Admittedly, he delved in at an early age and in High School things had really gotten out of control. He was in denial of being an artist and by senior year he fled the city and the hood, family and inner turmoil. He found a roof over his head with mom in upstate NY.

Surrounded by miles and miles of mountains and endless forests his soul had time, and a new space, to heal. The peace and solitude he found in nature was God and different things began to move him. He became part of a clan of Rastas and other escapists and lived in the Catskill Mountains. Adorned with dreadlocks, he bathed in the river and lived off of the land. Running the mountains, he became as honed as a mountain goat. He started to free climb the cliffs of the Shawangunks, comfortable being 200 feet up on the side of a cliff as he was exploring the Subway tunnels back in the city. Climbing felt natural.

Fast forward: 1988 – a health food store in New Paltz, a hippie-college town. His co-worker Rasta-John heard the solo cliff climgin stories and finally took him climbing with ropes, teaching the fundamentals of "rock-climbing". It was love at first climb. Ivan sold his only possession at the time, a mountain bike and bought a rope, harness, and special climbing shoes. A new phase of Ivan had begun. He became obsessed with climbing and spent the next decade traveling the world in search of the climbing adventures, to master this new art. Taking him to the most amazing places in the world - from the endless desert landscapes of the Wild West in Utah, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado - to the lush mountainous countryside of France - to the back country of Kentucky and the bizarre cliffs of India, it all became his playground. He made a meager living as a rock climbing guide, from some few sponsors, and competition winnings.

ivan@ivangreene.com