Vivian Allen and Andrew Allen always supported Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad’s passion for the performing arts
Actors Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad discovered their love of the performing arts while growing up in Houston with their parents, Vivian and Andrew Allen.
Vivian, a poet and cultural activist, worked with the Harris County Community Association in the city, and Andrew was a dentist there. When their daughters were kids, Texas was segregated, and they faced racism and discrimination, ultimately moving to Mexico. Vivian encouraged Debbie and Phylicia to pursue the arts, which helped them navigate that difficult time.
Sadly, Andrew died of diabetes in 1984. Vivian, however, turned 100 in 2023, and Debbie and Phylicia still have a special relationship with her. They celebrated her milestone birthday with multiple parties and also helped re-publish her famous poem, “Hawk.”
“My mother is incredible,” Debbie said during an interview with Ebony in 2023. “I think her mental capacity has led her to this golden age of 100. She’s had a lot of challenges in her life, and we’ve lived through those challenges with her. But at the end of the day, there’s always been positive energy.”
Here’s everything to know about Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad’s parents, Vivian and Andrew Allen.
They share four kids
Vivian and Andrew welcomed four children together. Debbie and Phylicia have two brothers who are not in the spotlight — Hugh Allen, a real estate banker, and Andrew Arthur “Tex” Allen Jr., an accomplished jazz musician.
They raised their kids in Texas
Vivian and Andrew raised their kids in Houston where they were immersed in the arts scene.
“For us, the arts were as much a part of life as climbing trees,” Phylicia told Town & Country about their childhood in a 2018 interview.
The actress returned to Texas to perform with the Houston Symphony at Jones Hall the year prior and at the time, she opened up about her roots to Chronicle.
“I grew up in Houston, and part of our activities as children was an annual trip to the music hall to hear the Houston Symphony play,” she shared. “That was a big deal.” Phylicia added that it was “an honor” to come back and perform there.
When they were growing up, Texas was segregated. During a June 2023 appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Debbie recalled, “I couldn’t go to dance class because I was Black.”
“I just know what the arts and education can do for a young person — it’s what helped me get through all that civil rights down in Texas when it was really bad,” she explained. “What it was like in the ‘60s was really tough. I saw things as a child I shouldn’t see.”
Vivian is a poet and scholar
Vivian is a poet, American classicist and cultural activist with an impressive résumé. She’s best known for her 1952 collection of poems, “Spice of Dawns,” which earned her a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize, per the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. Vivian also self-published a critically acclaimed long-form poem titled “Hawk” in 1957, which compared freedom to space flight.
“Mom was a mathematician,” Debbie told Ebony in August 2023. “She was one of those Hidden Figures women working at NASA; her poetry is written in stone at NASA.”
Debbie and Phylicia’s mother is passionate about education. According to Ebony, she studied classical Greek at Rice University, Columbia University and Princeton University, and she also studied and translated texts on Greek and Mayan culture and astronomy. Not to mention, the poet has received honorary doctorates form both Bennett College and Wilberforce University.
In 1973, she worked with the Harris County Community Association in Houston to develop her signature method of education, “Workshops in Open Fields,” per The South Carolina Department of Education.
Nancy Hanks, the director of the national endowment of the arts at the time, recommended the program to the country as a model for grassroots arts education. Vivian was then invited to serve as an adviser to the endowment as a member of The Associated Councils of the Arts.
