Upon graduating, Nascimento began working as an intern at the
Brazilian National Archives and continued her education, studying at the
Fluminense Federal University (UFF). She married Jose do Rosario Freitas Gomes and the couple subsequently had a daughter, Bethânia Gomes. While at UFF, she was involved in the founding of the Andre Rebouças Working Group, which had a significant effect on the resurgence of black identity and the politicization of race under the
Brazilian military government from 1974 to 1985. Her research during this period centered on
ethnographic studies in three of the surviving
quilombo communities (African-Brazilian Maroon societies) in
Minas Gerais. Conducting interviews and evaluating archival materials, Nascimento came to recognize
quilombos as "autonomous black spaces of liberation". In 1977, Nascimento was one of the speakers at the
Quinzena do Negro (Black Fortnight), organized by Eduardo Oliveira e Oliveira at the
University of São Paulo. The conference was pivotal in Nascimento's development, and was where she secured her place as an anchor in the Black Movement, through her introduction of theoretical ideas about the significance of
quilombos for
Afro-Brazilians and the intersection of race and gender in the political environment for black women in Brazil. She also strongly criticized the
Brazilian Academy of Sciences for its racist policies. In 1978, she joined the
Movimento Negro Unificado Contra a Discriminação Racial (Unified Black Movement, or MNU) and over the next decade worked with Raquel Gerber, a filmmaker, on a documentary which would become one of her most important legacies. Nascimento completed her graduate studies at UFF in 1981 and began a master's degree program at UFRJ studying communications with , a noted Brazilian
sociologist and journalist. She taught history at the Rome State School (), in
Copacabana and published articles in various newspapers and journals like
Estudos Afro-Asiáticos (Afro-Asian Studies),
Folha de São Paulo,
Revista Cultura Vozes (Culture Voices Magazine), and
Revista do Patrimônio Histórico (Historical Patrimony Magazine), while serving on the editorial board of
Boletim do Centenário da Abolição e República (Centennial Bulletin of Abolition and the Republic). In 1989, Nascimento and Gerber released
Ori, their documentary about the relationship between Africa and Brazil and the Black Movement in the country. ==Death and legacy==