[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 24, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S8118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IN MEMORY OF MIMI FARINA

 Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, in the more than 25 years that I 
have been privileged to serve in public office, I have come to know 
many, many remarkable people. But rarely have I ever known anyone more 
talented, more compassionate, selfless and remarkable than Mimi Farina.
  Last Wednesday, at age 56, Mimi Farina lost a courageous, two-year 
battle with neuroendocrine cancer. While people around the country and 
around the world are saddened by her death, Mimi's courageous, 
crusading spirit will surely live on in the work of Bread & Roses, an 
organization that she founded in 1974.
  Bread & Roses is a unique, internationally renowned social services 
agency, held together by countless dedicated volunteers and a simple, 
compassionate mission: to bring free live music to people confined in 
institutions--in jails, juvenile facilities, hospitals and rest homes. 
Last year alone, Bread & Roses sponsored more than 500 concerts at some 
82 institutions across the country.
  Mimi Farina gave up her own promising singing career to found Bread & 
Roses and to nurse it through years of hard times. The inspiration for 
Bread & Roses came to her in 1973, when she accompanied her sister Joan 
Baez and blues artist B.B. King to a performance at Sing Sing prison. 
She was deeply moved by the prisoners' reaction to the music they heard 
that day. That experience, coupled with a performance of her own a 
short time later at a Marin County halfway house convinced Mimi of the 
enormous need for an organization like Bread & Roses.
  Over the past quarter century, the work of Bread & Roses has been 
supported by a dazzling array of performers, including Bonnie Raitt, 
Pete Seeger, Paul Winter, Odetta, Lily Tomlin, Carlos Santana, Judy 
Collins, Robin Williams, Huey Lewis, Boz Scaggs and Taj Mahal.
  As Bread & Roses grew in size and stature, Mimi became its most 
prominent and persuasive advocate. She received many awards and 
accolades, including ``Woman of the Year'' from the Bay Area Women in 
Music, ``Most Valuable Person Award'' from the National Academy of 
Recording Arts & Sciences, ``Woman Most Likely to be President'' from 
the San Francisco League of Women Voters, ``Woman Entrepreneur of the 
Year'' from the National Association of Women Business Owners and the 
10th Annual Life Work Award from the Falkirk Cultural Center in San 
Rafael. She was among the first inductees into the Marin County Women's 
Hall of Fame.
  I close today with an offer of my deepest condolences to the family 
of Mimi Farina and to those who loved her, and with these words from 
the poem ``Bread & Roses,'' originally written for female laborers and 
put to music by Mimi:

     Our days shall not be sweated from birth until life closes.
     Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us bread, but give us 
           roses.

                          ____________________