Often donning a gold-glittered Tupac T-shirt, jeans and cap, Chris “Big Bun” Adagbonyin could be seen as a threat. But his tall, “hulky” figure, dark skin and four gold caps spanning his top-row front teeth made him a big security blanket in which young people felt safe. “His insides were totally different than his outsides—he was a marshmallow,” Sykes said.
The central issue, for Moses, is one of civil rights. If young people are to have future access to the best possible jobs, then they must also have the best possible K-12 education — an education that provides every child with the opportunity to go to college and, afterwards, work in a global economy that is driven less by industry and more by information. The key to preparing everyone — and he means everyone — for college and for the economy of the future, suggests Moses, is the ability to do the abstract and symbolic thinking best developed in an algebra class.
The time immediately after Katrina was difficult for the YPP, Brown admits. The members had to collect themselves and reconnect with each other. But they also knew “reconnecting” would be much more difficult for hurricane victims in New Orleans and elsewhere. Initially, they decided to help by sending toiletries and money, as the rest of the country was doing. But they soon realized they needed to do more.
The teens are part of the Young People's Project (YPP), run by Moses' son Omo. It evolved within the Algebra Project and, at times, acts as a sort of roadshow. Members see themselves as math-literacy workers and seek to demystify the science of numbers, in this case through a blend of rap, civil rights history, and games.
