Universidade da Correria

(“correria” [correr: verb TO RUN] in Portuguese it also means something like hustle and bustle, a hassle, a hectic daily life, or the set of things people have to do for a living without any support)

I founded this project when I lived in Morro do 18 (Rio’s suburbs), and I organized the first class in Favela da Maré, in 2013.

I used to sell T-shirts with the project’s logo for R$39 (Brazilian currency, approx. 7.5 USD). I started the first course with the money I got from selling T-shirts. After five years, 4,300 Afroentrepreneurs have graduated from Universidade da Correria.

Our school started in the alley. I held classes in alleys, bars, churches, prisons, inside my house, and in the Citizen’s Action Shed (a place for educational and cultural activities in the suburbs).

The proposal was to strengthen black businesses and create a black middle class in Brazil, which does not exist, and this is the greatest reflection of slavery.

I ran from favela to favela offering classes. I was a popular educator. I was happy, teaching people to control their finances, to build a business strategy. We were the pioneering accelerator and business incubator for people who were excluded. We put together a pitch, and many of our students got investment. We followed the ideals of Marcus Garvey (Jamaican political activist, journalist, and entrepreneur, founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League).

I left Brazil. I never had another chance to see my people, my students; I never had another chance to teach them.

I am here today. You call me a writer, and I coordinate a media vehicle, Coluna de Terça. I don’t even know how life has placed me in here.

But I found these photos and wanted to remember who I was, and whom I felt proud of.