The Claudia Jones Project is an experimental study circle, research collective and grounding space for deep reflection and interpretation of the life and legacy of the anti-fascist Trinidadian cultural worker, Claudia Jones. We are a crew of 15 filmmakers, visual artists, poets, musicians, archivists and scholars based mainly in Philadelphia, but with tendrils in Atlanta, New Orleans, Oakland, London, Port of Spain, and Cape Town. The project’s central aim is to make an experimental documentary based on the eponymous figure, who was a Harlem based labor organizer, journalist, mentee of DuBois, communist party leader, ‘proto-feminist’ and author of “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Women” (1949). Jones’ activism and writing lead to multiple arrests, extensive FBI surveillance through the Smith and McCarran Acts and her imprisonment and deportation to the UK. During her time in London, Jones deepened her relationship with the burgeoning West Indian, African and South Asian communities, creating the West Indian Gazette and founding the first diasporic Caribbean Carnival – the Notting Hill Carnival.

Lead Organizer: Farrah Rahaman