Bryant Muldrew is a Baltimore native born in the West Baltimore community known as Park Heights. In his teenage years, his family moved to the Cherry Hill community of Southwest Baltimore. It was during this time, he became a math tutor for the Baltimore Algebra Project (BAP). While working for the BAP, he learned of the horrid state of the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) and the deliberate underfunding by Maryland State Board of Education.
Bryant became an active member of the BAP’s advocacy committee for eight years. In addition to his community organizing work, Bryant maintained an active role as a Math Instructor using the National Algebra Project’s Pedagogy to teach and inspire youth to excel in Mathematics. At BAP, Bryant served in several leadership capacities including serving as president for two years.
Bryant’s connection to the BAP led to work with Follow Your Dreams, Inc. (FYD) an organization that taught young people to use music and spoken word as a means of expression rather than self-expression through violent acts of aggression.
While working with the BAP and FYD, Bryant joined the Institute for Democratic Education in America (IDEA). IDEA’s work focused on bringing educators and youth advocates together to support each other’s local educational organizing efforts.
After eight years of community organizing, Bryant began to experience burnout resulting in a four year break from his work to reconsider his future plans. During that time, he explored a variety of career options, but found himself yearning to return to his work with young people. Bryant immediately returned to teaching, spending four years in an alternative school for young people 2-3 years behind their peers.
Despite his passion for his work, Bryant found the bureaucratic red tape of the BCPSS disheartening. He spent his final year teaching trying to navigate the bureaucracy to expand his work beyond the classroom to support his students. During the same year, Bryant was teaching evening math classes to adults preparing to enter into an electrician apprenticeship program. Acceptance of the failures of the BCPSS in conjunction with personal goals resulted in the decision to change career paths. It was then, Bryant decided to pursue carpentry, a teenage dream he never fulfilled.
Bryant joined the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America with the hopes of using carpentry to impact his community in the future. Today, Bryant is pursuing that goal by founding the Baltimore Carpenter’s Project.
The Baltimore Carpenter's Project 