Biography
Cheree Franco holds an MA in Arts & Culture Journalism from Columbia University and has been a features writer and editor at alt-weeklies and daily papers, in addition to publishing in magazines, anthologies, and punk zines. Her work has appeared in VICE, Huck, Juxtapoz, Vinyl Me Please, BOMB, Number:INC, Buzzfeed, Brooklyn Rail, Ra-zorcake, The Indypendent and more. Currently she teaches journalism as a Visiting Professor of Communications. She spent much of 2011 reporting from Pakistan, with the New York Times-affiliate Express Tribune. A wrongful conviction story she wrote played a role in helping release a formerly-incarcerated Arkansan, 20 years into a life-sentence.
More recently she investigated the history of discrimination and access surrounding Ponchartrain's beaches for Places Journal. She followed the grassroots caretakers of Lincoln Beach, the former (city-owned, long-closed, but still used) Black beach and amusement park in New Orleans East, exploring the meaning of true public stewardship and the necessity for free-range spaces. Some of her work can be found on her website.
Recent Publications
Cheree Franco, “The City’s Beach, Run by the People,” Places Journal, July 2023. Accessed 26 Jul 2023.
https://placesjournal.org/article/lincoln-beach-new-orleans-black-and-indigenous-space/