CCIJ's Metaverse Launch Party

Join us Wednesday, August 25 at 6:00 PM Central Africa Time / 12:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time for CCIJ’s Metaverse Launch Party!

Developed by CCIJ’s Innovation Director Jon Lowenstein and designers Karen Eng and Lenara Verle, the metaverse is a collective virtual space that will reimagine how we engage with our community.

CCIJ will stream the Metaverse Launch Party via Zoom. The event will include a panel moderated by CCIJ’s founder and executive director Jeff Kelly Lowenstein with invited guests Jon Lowenstein and Karen Eng. Headlining the event will be The Gambia-based journalist Lamin Jahateh and photojournalist Jason Florio, who produced “The Gambia’s Water Paradox” with CCIJ in June. They will talk about the water issues facing the people of The Gambia and share stories about the photographs that are to be exhibited in CCIJ’s metaverse space. During the presentation, attendees will also be invited to enter the metaverse and experience the CCIJ Bad Water exhibit firsthand.

We hope you will help us celebrate this incredible launch!

When

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

6 PM Central Africa Time /
12 PM U.S. Eastern Time

Where

Virtual via Zoom
Link will be emailed prior to event

Registration is open

The Panelists

Karen Eng is a multidisciplinary artist whose work embraces both traditional and emerging technologies. As a visual artist, she’s currently exploring the possibilities of VR and cryptoart as tools of expression. Her practice is driven by curiosity, playfulness, a spirit of collaboration and willingness to experiment. Current work includes large-scale live animated projections, VR-generated art, experimental moving image, and experiments in AI-augmented art.

Lamin Jahateh, The Gambia, is a Gambian freelance journalist with more than 10 years of professional experience in journalism and media advocacy. He is a stringer for the Reuters news agency, a member of the West African network of investigative journalists and was formerly the program manager for the Gambia Press Union.

Jason Florio is a New York, Malta, and West Africa based award-winning photographer and writer from London. For the past 15 years, he has worked as a freelance photojournalist around the globe for publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Outside, and Newsweek. At the beginning of his career he had gained recognition after being one of the last photographers in Afghanistan to photograph the anti-Taliban commander Ahmed Shah Massoud.

Jeff Kelly Lowenstein is the founder and executive director of CCIJ. An investigative and journalist, his work has been published in The New Yorker and in the Center for Public Integrity, among many other publications.

Jon Lowenstein specializes in long-term, in-depth documentary explorations that confront the realms of power, poverty, and violence.