Our Team

Mark Winston Griffith, Executive Editor, Third Rail Co-host and Co-Producer/Writer

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A third-generation resident of Crown Heights, Mark Winston Griffith is the Executive Director of the Brooklyn Movement Center, a community organizing group based in Central Brooklyn. Over the last two decades, Mark has been the co-founder of the Central Brooklyn Federal Credit Union, co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Project (now the New Economy Project), and Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. A practicing journalist and political commentator, Mark was an adjunct professor of urban reporting at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism from 2010 to 2012. Mark is a frequent guest on WNYC radio and his articles and editorials have appeared in the New York Times, the Nation, Mother Jones, the Daily News, and City Limits Magazine, among others. He was a columnist for Gotham Gazette and the Huffington Post, was a board member of City Limits Magazine, and is currently a board member of the television network and digital news source, Free Speech TV. Mark attended Brown University and the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, and is a graduate of the CUNY School of Journalism’s Entrepreneurial Journalism program. He is a recipient of fellowships from the Rockefeller, Open Society and Revson foundations. Contact Mark at mwgriffith@brooklyndeep.org.


Veralyn Williams, Third Rail Co-Host and Co-Producer

Veralyn Williams

Veralyn Williams is an award-winning Journalist who has been tackling questions on identity, social norms, and community since she picked up her first microphone 10 years ago. Veralyn is Managing Editor of Brooklyn Deep (BKD), a digital investigative news, analysis, and data website chronicling neighborhood change in Central Brooklyn. She also co-hosts and produces BKD’s Third Rail podcast, discussing social justice issues and hot topics monthly. Before BKD, Veralyn spent 6 years freelancing, producing and reporting stories for WNYC, NPR, Bedsider.org, Ebony.com, WBAI, BronxNet Television, and on her personal blog, VeralynMedia.com. Veralyn is a Board Member and Co-Founder of Telem Center for the African Child, a nonprofit providing cultural, educational and recreational programs for children of African descent to explore and celebrate their heritage. Through all of her endeavors, she aims to give a voice to perspectives that are often forgotten in the media. Contact Veralyn at vwilliams@brooklydeep.org.


Keisha Dutes, Third Rail co-producer 

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Keisha “TK” Dutes’ audio life is truly all encompassing. Along with being the engineer and co-producer of Third Rail- her experience spans 7 years on WBAI as an on-air personality and producer, to founding Bondfire Radio a live streaming web radio station where she curates and produces programs that air live and archive in podcast form. As an enterprising freelancer, TK produces audio stories and shows for private clients. Her one day intensive, The Podcasters Retreat is an intimate monthly class that makes podcasting easy and accessible to all. Learn more about TK at  http://tastykeish.net.      


Erica Rosen, Development Team Leader

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In collaboration with the rest of the Brooklyn Deep team, Erica is responsible for growing the visibility of Brooklyn Deep and launching its first-ever crowdfunding campaign, coming to a Kickstarter near you in May 2017. She is the Director of Marketing at BioLite, a renewable energy startup dedicated to bringing safe, reliable energy access to those living off-grid around the world.


Max Freedman, Brooklyn Deep contributor

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Max Freedman is a theater artist, teacher, and design strategist based in Bed-Stuy. His research on the collision of gentrification and public schools in Central Brooklyn has been featured in Brooklyn Deep and on BRIC TV. As a Senior Educator at the New-York Historical Society, he created and runs an outreach program to middle schools using theater to teach American history, from the Revolution to Urban Renewal. As a Joker with Theatre of the Oppressed NYC, he has collaborated with actors from (most recently) Youth Organizing to Save Our Streets and Housing Works to create original plays based on their experiences of injustice. (Photo credit: @sindayiganza)


Walis Johnson, Voices of Crown Heights Coordinator

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Walis is an experimental filmmaker, artist, walker/researcher and whose work documents the experience of the urban landscape through ethnographic film, oral history, and artist walking practice.  She is interested in the intersection of documentary film and performance. Her latest work,The Red Line Archive, a mobile public art project focused on the history of the 1938 Red line Map in Brooklyn and its impact on neighborhoods of Clinton Hill/Fort Greene, Bedford Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, areas of cultural and historical importance in black Brooklyn. She is She holds an MFA from Hunter College, in Interactive Media and Advanced Documentary film and has taught at Parsons School of Design.


Rohan Narang, Brooklyn Deep Assistant Editor

Rohan Narang

Rohan Narang is from New Jersey and commuted to New York City often. He has interned for government agencies and non-profits in NYC, Boston and Abroad. International travel influenced his passion for community development. He has attained a B.S. degree in Sustainable Community Development from UMass Amherst. He is interested in environmental justice. He aims to be part of process that makes cities more sustainable through three interdisciplinary pillars of economy, environment and society. Rohan wants to learn about the campaigns and digital journalism platform that Brooklyn Movement Center develops in order to contribute to a great cause for communities.


Dewayne Gage, Journalism Intern

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Urban culture will always have an impact on the world around us; my passion lies in telling compelling stories that continue to push the culture forward. I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Illinois which shaped who I am today. I I graduated from Marquette University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism along with a double minor in digital media and sociology in May of 2016. During my time at Marquette, I became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity Inc along with becoming apart of the National Association of Black Journalist (NABJ).  I am now working with Brooklyn Deep this summer while attending City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism receiving my Master with a concentration in Arts & Culture in December of 2017.


Tabia Robinson, Journalism Intern

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​My name is Tabia C. Robinson and I am currently a student at CUNY, Graduate School of Journalism where my subject concentration is in Urban Reporting. I’m also the Crime Blotter Reporter and Freelancer at The Villager, which covers the West Village in NYC. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from SUNY, University at Albany. In the journalism program at UAlbany is where I found my love for writing. I am from Brooklyn, NY and growing up I was interested in the urban life, government and education. I am excited to be a voice for those who feel like they can’t be heard. From covering the latest school opening to frequent problems constituents in certain neighborhoods are dealing with, I like to cover it all. I’ve had the opportunity to write for Charge Magazine, The Black Magazine, The Albany Student Press and I am the former editor-in-chief of Her Campus Albany chapter.


Brooklyn Deep Alumni:

Jarrett Lyons, Brooklyn Deep Contributor

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Jarrett is a Brooklyn native who comes to Brooklyn Deep as an urban and arts reporter from CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Jarrett’s previous reporting on community-based art and politics can be found at City Limits and the New York City News Service. Jarrett holds an MA in Theater History and Criticism at Brooklyn College where his work investigated the intersections of queer performance/theory and politics. Jarrett has worked in various capacities at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, The Helix Queer Performance Network, and CultureHub. He lives in Gravesend. Contact Jarrett at jlyons@brooklyndeep.org.


Andrew Caringi, Brooklyn Deep Contributor

Andrew Caringi

Andrew Caringi is a freelance photographer and filmmaker.  He is a Master’s Candidate at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where he specializes in urban reporting and visual storytelling.  This summer he will be producing his first film from Hunts Point, where a group of young Bronxites attempt to create their own video game company. Andrew is alumni of St. Michael’s College where he created the website clearingthesmoke.com, an educational website about tobacco marketing and the effects it still has on today’s youth.  He currently resides in Bushwick.


Monica Melton, Brooklyn Deep Reporter

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Monica Melton is a multimedia reporter for The New York City News Service as well as Norwood News. She is a Master’s Candidate at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and specializes in international reporting; with forthcoming work for Front Page Africa. Monica enjoys reporting on race, women’s issues and the arts. She is alumni ofUniversity of Washington where she conducted a research project on Brazil’s media systems and its treatment of Afro-Brazilians. She currently resides in Crown Heights. Contact Monica at mmelton@brooklyndeep.org.


 Cole Rosengren, Brooklyn Deep Reporter

Cole Rosengren

Cole is a reporter from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, with a particular interest in garbage and environmental issues. He has written for City Limits, Gotham Gazette, The Hunts Point Express, Mott Haven Herald and The Riverdale Press. Recently, he had the honor of receiving the Dennis Duggan Memorial Award from the Society of the Silurians. After growing up in South Portland, Maine, he graduated from Emerson College in Boston and has been in New York for the past six years. He currently lives in Clinton Hill with his wife and more books than he will ever have time to read. Since moving here, Cole has worked all over the city as a delivery biker, waiter, restaurant manager, website editor, furniture mover and sanitation captain, but enjoys being a reporter the most. Contact Cole at CRosengren@brooklyndeep.org.

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