On Friday, September 14th, Chris Adagbonyin, or "Big Bun" as we knew and
loved him, was murdered. Chris, among many things, was a proud father and
beautiful person who will be missed dearly by his family, his friends, and
the many people around the country who he has touched through his work.
In his words:
My name is Christopher Adagbonyin, I am 23 years old and a 10 year member
of The Young People's Project. The road to becoming a member of The Young
People's Project started when I was in sixth grade in Bob Moses's Algebra
Project class. Two years later I became a member of The Young People's
Project, which by then had just been founded by Omo Moses. Over the years I
have held a numbers of titles within YPP. First I began as a participant in
YPP's Saturday workshops. These where used to engage us into critical
thinking activities and also give us a chance to build a relationship with
then YPP staff. A year later I got a chance to become one of the
facilitators. This gave me a chance to do for my younger peers what Omo and
other YPP elders had done for me. This is when I adopted the " each one
teach one " attitude. Over the next three years I became a manager, I now
helped to engage facilitators into critical thinking skills, and began to
be more concerned about their surroundings. I then was put in a position
where I was now training folks to be MLWS (Math Literacy Workers). This
involved a lot of traveling, that eventually opened my mind about the way
that people lived in other places, how to embrace their cultures and their
ideas. I am now carrying another title, which proves to be the most
difficult of all (youth organizer). I know that with the support that I
have been getting over the years from YPP, this challenge will be
accomplished.
Chris was a thinker, who felt deeply for the struggles of everyday folk,
who wanted to create movement in his community and in his life, who heeded
the call to respond to the aftermath of Katrina by helping to organize the
Finding Our Folk Tour; who had begun to plan to develop creative outlets
for young people in Jackson, building on his years of experience with YPP
and with the tour.
The Young People's Project and Algebra Project would like to recognize
Chris' life in a way that is meaningful, which honors the many
contributions he made and wanted to make to his family and friends, to his
community and to young people, and which respects his struggle to become a
man in this day and time in America. We invite your suggestions for how to
do this.
We are collecting stories and pictures of Chris (& please see attached photos),
please send to ypp@typp.org and maimoses@yahoo.com.
If you would like to share your thoughts or stories verbally,
please call Maisha at 601 462 2331.
Chris was born on October 7th, 1982, he died on September 14th, 2007. The
funeral will be held on Saturday, September 22nd at 2pm at New Horizons
Church, 2750 Belvedere, Jackson, MS.
