[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15041]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO MIMI FARINA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 30, 2001

  Ms. WOOLSEY Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mimi Farina of Mill 
Valley, California, an accomplished folk singer, actor and social 
activist, whose work lives on today. Mimi Farina died July 18 of cancer 
at the age of 56, leaving a legacy of compassion and a commitment to 
healing through music.
  Born Margarita Mimi Baez, she and her sister, Joan Baez, were part of 
the burgeoning folk revival in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When she 
married writer Richard Farina at age 18, she, her husband, Joan Baez 
and Bob Dylan led the Greenwich Village folk renaissance, creating 
music that inspired the peace and civil rights movements of the 60's. 
After her husband's tragic death when she was only 21, Farina joined 
the San Francisco satiric group The Committee.
  Raised a Quaker and always a woman of conscience, she was arrested at 
a peace march in 1967 and held briefly in prison, giving her a first-
hand view of life behind bars. In 1973 she observed the moving response 
of prisoners in Sing Sing to a performance by Joan Baez and blues 
immortal B.B. King. After singing in a halfway house shortly 
afterwards, she developed the idea for Bread and Roses, an organization 
whose goal is to bring music to people isolated in institutions. 
Founded in 1974, Bread and Roses sponsors live musical performance by 
well-known artists for people in prisons, hospitals, senior centers, 
juvenile facilities and other institutions. Last year, Bread and Roses 
provided more than 500 concerts in 82 facilities--concerts that provide 
music's healing power to listeners as well as powerful emotional 
experiences for performers. Inspired by Bread and Roses success, 
several similar organizations have sprung up around the country.
  Back when Mimi and Richard Farina were a folk duo they sang:
  If somehow you could pack up your sorrows
  And send them all to me
  You would lose them
  I'd know how to use them
  Send them all to me
  Mimi Farina took the sorrows of forgotten people and turned them into 
life-affirming song. She was appreciated for her spirit, her talent, 
and her beauty . . . and she is already missed.

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