Bread and Roses Festival - 1979

Bands: Peter, Paul & Mary, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Chick Corea, The Roches, David Crosby, Norton Buffalo, Chambers Brothers, John Hammond, Graham Nash, Maria Muldaur, Flora Purim and others

After years on stage, Mimi Farina  - the sister of Joan Baez - got tired of the business of recording albums. Like her sister, Farina made it her life’s work to improve lives with music. And meanwhile, she became inspired by the healing properties in the relationship between audience and performer. So, Farina founded Bread & Roses, to bring musicians and comedians to jails, prisons, hospitals, children’s wards and institutions that didn’t have much access to entertainment.

These Bread & Roses shows soon took off, and Farina organized dozens of events that made a mark in the Bay Area. Farina died of cancer in 2001, but Bread & Roses is going strong. The group produces more than 600 shows across the nation, but its roots will always be in the Bay Area. From 1977 through 1982 these were annual festivals held at the Greek Theatre.

Artist Stanley Mouse is one of the San Francisco School of psychedelic artists, “Big Five.” He, along with Alton Kelley and Wes Wilson were the primary poster artists for the Fillmore and Avalon Ballrooms throughout 1966 and Mouse and Kelley crated many iconic images of the psychedelic oeuvre. In 1968, promoters Chet Helms and Bill Graham began turning to other artists for their poster work, and Mouse's career languished until 1971, when he and Alton Kelley started producing much commercial artwork related to the Grateful Dead and later Journey. This piece, incorporating a rose with wheat ears is classic Stanley Mouse.