Ferentz Lafargue

In: Biography, History

Ferentz Lafargue is an assistant

professor of literature at Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts. His essays have appeared in Starting With I (Persea 1997) and the inaugural issue of Bronx Biannual (Akashic Books 2006).

Born in Haiti, Ferentz Lafargue moved to Jamaica, Queens in 1981 at the age of five, joining his parents who had immigrated to the United States in 1976. Ferentz began earnestly exercising his skills as a sports and features writer for The Hilltopper, Jamaica High School’s student paper. While at Jamaica High, Ferentz further honed his journalism talents writing for New Youth Connections, New York City’s preeminent magazine written for and by youth.

Prior to completing his PhD in African American and American Studies at Yale University, Ferentz earned his B.A. in Africana Studies and Englisht at Queens College, CUNY. Ferentz matriculated at Queens through S.E.E.K. and was later awarded the prestigious Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship, and an internship at the Village Voice.

His essays have appeared in the collection Starting With I (Persea Books, 1997), the inaugural issue of Bronx Biannual (Akashic Books 2006), and at 215mag.com. Ferentz is currently working on a number of writing projects. He is revising his 2004 monograph, No Place to go Except the Grave. He has teamed with Dr. Ruth Nicole Brown to write, Civil Reconstruction, a study on the writings of June Jordan. His final project, and first as an editor, Cheryl St. James's biography of her late brother, Haraya St. James, the 1980s New York student radical. He also shares his thoughts on contemporary events and politics on the blogs The Nightshift Chronicles amd Pelerin89.

Ferentz now lives in Brooklyn, New York.