The Black Lullaby Experience

L-R: Baby participant and grandmother, Dianne Morris, NIASHA (Music Director) and Baby participant’s mother

Let your baby’s heartbeat guide the rhythm.

The Black Lullaby Experience is a multi-sensory, participatory arts project for babies aged 0 -2 and their caregivers, by midwife and storyteller, Dianne Morris. With over 30 years of midwifery and creative arts experience across Australia and the UK, Dianne’s supports families and babies to bond through music and art making, nurturing cultural connection for newborns in their earliest weeks.

Where your baby’s first sounds meet your ancestral songs and nursery rhymes. This experience will offer support, connection with your baby, and cultural affirmation.

Through an immersive soundscape of Caribbean and African diasporic lullabies, rhythms and sounds, The BLE invites families into a space of cultural expression, experimentation and intergenerational connection. 

Babies are invited to actively contribute to the creation of the lullabies and soundscapes, through their vocalisations—coos, gurgles, and early attempts at language—expressing their innate connection to sound and rhythm. 

No musical experience needed. Just bring your voice, your rhythm, your love.

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The Black Lullaby Experience is a series of three phase events, launching November 2025. In phase one, we invite you to DREAM: an immersive and participatory session that will create the container of the project.

Bubs and caregivers will be invited into creating:

  • Call-and-response lullabies led by Music Director and Lead Vocalist NIASHA

  • Percussion-based rhythms inspired by Caribbean and African traditions with musician Kwamena Brace,

  • Rhythmic and visual storytelling, animated by artist Louis Majiwa. 

Babies coo, caregivers chant, and together we build a lullaby that grows with each breath.

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EVENT DETAILS

DREAM

LOCATION: ArtPlay, Birrarung Marr, Russell St Ext, Melbourne VIC 3000

DATE: 21 - 22 NOVEMBER 2025

TIME: We will run two sessions on both dates:

10AM - 12PM (0 - 1YO)

1PM - 3PM (1 -2YO)

ARTIST TEAM: Dianne Morris, NIASHA, Kwamena Brace and Louis Majiwa.

PRODUCERS/MENTORS: Taku Mbudzi (event and storytelling) and Toby Benador (visual art and set design)

ACESSIBILITY:

For more information on this project email: team@diannemorris.com

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The project seeded by ArtPlay’s New Ideas Lab, where children and families collaborate with artists to develop brand-new creative experiences.

Image credit: Darren Gill