[1] Fariña's father, a physicist affiliated with Stanford University and MIT, moved his family frequently due to his job assignments, working in the United States and in international locations.

[3] The two collaborated on a number of influential folk albums, most notably, Celebrations for a Grey Day (1965) and Reflections in a Crystal Wind (1966), both on Vanguard Records.

[2] After Richard Fariña's death in a motorcycle accident on April 30, 1966 (on Mimi's twenty-first birthday),[2] she moved to San Francisco, where she flourished as a singer, songwriter, model, actress, and activist.

[2] That same year, she and her sister Joan Baez were arrested at a peaceful demonstration and were housed temporarily in Santa Rita Jail, personalizing the experience of captivity for her.

Farina had just set the poem to a new tune she composed, which was an instant success, becoming the favorite of many subsequent singers, including Judy Collins, Ani DiFranco, Utah Phillips, and Josh Lucker, and it was also performed by a slowly growing crowd of workers in a moving/critical turning point scene in the 2014 movie Pride.

Surrounded by military police, Fariña and Sears played a show for people protesting U.S. weapons being shipped to government troops in El Salvador.

Fariña used her connections with the folk-singing community to elicit help in supporting Bread and Roses, including Pete Seeger, Paul Winter, Odetta, Hoyt Axton, Judy Collins, Taj Mahal, Lily Tomlin, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, and others.