November 03, 2025
Poetry by Lois Baer Barr featured in Mexican webzine and Holocaust exhibit
Lois Baer Barr, Associate Professor of Spanish Emerita
Through poetry and art, Associate Professor of Spanish Emerita Lois Baer Barr honors memory, music, and the enduring power of words.
“Ay, Federico, te mereces más” is a heartfelt homage to the beloved Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, intertwining Barr’s lifelong admiration for Lorca with reflections on memory, language, and artistic legacy.
In her poem, Barr addresses Lorca directly—lamenting the modern reinterpretations of his work and recalling how she once introduced his verses to her students. “I don’t regret making them suffer memorizing your verses,” she writes, hoping that her students “still remember you a little when they hear your name.” The piece closes with Barr’s enduring affection for Lorca’s poetry and her awareness of time’s passing: “Now that I have forty more years of life than you, the spurs of your riders pursue me… soon the dance will end.”
Published in Paratextos/Poesía, a nonprofit digital project dedicated to curating and sharing contemporary and classic poetry, Barr’s work reaches Spanish-speaking audiences across Mexico and beyond.
Barr also had four of her poems included in a multimedia art exhibit on the Violins of Hope, a collection of instruments once owned and played during the Holocaust. The exhibit was featured at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee art gallery and will travel to the Milwaukee Jewish Community Center in November 2025.
Currently a literacy tutor for refugees in Chicago, Barr continues to explore the intersections of art, empathy, and identity through her writing. She also studies flamenco dance in Pilsen with instructor Wendy Clinard—an art form that, like Lorca’s poetry, pulses with duende, passion, and memory.