“Since I have the strength and I have instruments, I have to use them.”

“There are a thousand forms of prison, but only one form of freedom” is a phrase by rapper Emicida that translates the essence of Gabriella, born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, the law student at UFRJ is 20 years old and is a teacher, an intern at Pinheiro Neto and acts in the State Front for the Decarceration of Rio de Janeiro. She carries freedom in her heart and battles to see it in the world together with her people. She has the mission to follow in the footsteps of Luis Gama, who freed more than 500 enslaved people, and on her path, there are only 498 free lives left.

The role of education in the trajectory of each individual is extraordinary. Gabriella is the perfect example. Being the daughter of a teacher, this tool was always present in her life. She was an Ismart scholarship holder and accompanied her mother in her classes, giving lessons to other children since she was a little girl. But her impact was not limited to education. She already had an altruistic look and was in solidarity actions like distributing clothes and food to homeless people. That’s when she started to recognize that the problems she saw in society were structural, and today her fight is to change this reality by fighting the roots of these problems.

LALA came into her life through the connection with people in the network who had purposes like hers. She enrolled and participated in BLB7 in São Paulo, the class with more black people, which was a great learning experience in community and ancestrality. In the Bootcamp she could see herself better, realize what her passions, goal, and mission are, and connect with her past. She saw that she was imprisoned by several social markers, which made her become someone totally against prisons. Within the LALA community, she was approved for Academy 2021 and developed AfroFund (@afrofund_), a funding initiative for young black leaders. Here she allowed herself and realized the importance of vulnerability, sensitivity, and active listening, which are present in her life until today. As a teacher, she realizes the importance of a liberating education that values body, head, and heart, words that for her connect with LALA’s education format.

Her core emanates power, transformation, and care. Among her favorite activities, there is room for self-care, recognized by her as a form of self-liberation, reiterating the importance of being well to face contemporary challenges, also as a form of resistance, since among all the inequality, health is also one of the neglected points for black people.

Freedom. A word that for some has never been an obstacle, but for others means the right to live and to be able to walk down the street. Gabriella carries in her chest the urgency to end the prisons, leading to the self-liberation and liberation of her own: “Many things try to imprison me, to undermine the little freedom I have, but I am always doing the opposite movement, and I understand that freedom for me will never really exist while my black brothers and sisters are not free as well.

This fight for freedom starts from a recognition of the structural problems of society, racial inequality as a social disease, and the need for everyone to be committed to fighting this social evil. In the dichotomy between her dream of being a mother and the fear of losing her child to racism, she wants to see black families alive and happy!

Gabriella’s voice and fight come like a nightingale bringing great power and transformation. She leaves Emicida’s message, “All we have, is us,” doing justice to the sense of community and unity existing inside LALA and beyond, along with the strength to change the world. We are immensely grateful for your existence, presence, and collaboration, and we are inspired by the lives of the 500 people who will be free by you.

These stories are written and edited by the Storytelling Team, an alumni-lead team that collects stories with the objective of recognizing and celebrating the wonderful work that volunteers, staff, and alumni do for LALA and also showing how the organization has impacted their life.