Traditionally, when earning your first capoeira cord, you receive a fighter alias.
“Warrior.”
After the nine months I spent as a Fulbright Scholar in Bahia, Brazil shooting a documentary highlighting Afro-Brazilian martial arts, graffiti, and ancestral cuisine, I never imagined myself exhibiting actions worthy of such a title.
Feeling nervous and offbeat, I entered the “roda” and took on Graduate Traquina, now Instructor Traquina, in an exchange that would officially grant me my first capoeira cord. As the younger kids looked on, I felt both awkward and embraced as I showcased what little attacks and defenses I had learned in just a few months of training. It was the pure essence of capoeira; playful, confrontational, and grounded in self-discovery. The sounds of the berimbau expanded all my senses and in that moment, I felt that every setback, ounce of effort, and sacrifice of my grant period led me right where I needed to be.
As a storyteller, you learn to be quick on your feet. In Salvador, that meant adapting to unexpected challenges—equipment failures, bureaucratic hurdles, imposter syndrome, and the constant overstimulation of navigating a new environment completely in my second language. But resilience alone didn’t make me a warrior.
What truly defined my Fulbright experience was gaining the ability to turn my resilience into purpose. The type of storytelling I want to do—celebrating people who push culture forward—moves with people, not just around them. That’s the guiding vision behind NUNU FILMS, my documentary production house dedicated to telling stories in music, culture, and entertainment. I like to think the title “warrior” also meant filing my LLC paperwork from my one-bedroom apartment 4,000 miles away from home.
Learning three different styles of martial arts while filming capoeirstas, embracing the Brazilian Hip-Hop scene while capturing street murals, and visiting quilombos to learn the significance of palm oil while following a Baiana de Acarajé meant immersing myself in the life before documenting it. It meant building friendships with my story characters, sharing meals, and opening up just as much as I asked others to. That mutual exchange of trust and vulnerability is what garners real rapport, and it’s what makes this work so deeply rewarding.
Finding those moments of empathy and connection in storytelling is what I truly believe makes a warrior.
Ann “Nunu” Licharew, Fulbright to Brazil in 2024