Jo Harvey Allen is an American writer, actress, and artist, born in 1942 and raised in Lubbock, Texas. In 1961, she married renowned artist and singer Terry Allen and moved to Los Angeles, California where she walked away from a BFA degree from Woodbury College of Design over a disputed sixty dollar fee. She studied with poets, Philip Levine and Kenneth Rexroth and staged her first “poetry performance” for an audience of one, mentor, dancer, filmmaker, Yvonne Rainer. She is a pioneer of women in radio (1960s) hosting L.A.’s Rawhide & Roses, music and talk show, on the first underground rock station, KPPC-FM, Pasadena, California, produced by her husband of 45 years, artist/songwriter, Terry Allen. She was one of the first performance artist (1970’s) performing throughout the U.S. in alternative spaces, cafes, art galleries and museums including ’80 Langton Street, San Francisco, The New Museum, New School, N.Y.C., and the Chick-N-Burger Café, Anchorage, Alaska.