The Diahann Project

Raising Isaiah
BY JOËLLE FONTAINE

“Red
And yellow
Pink and green…”

Journey with us this Mother’s Day through the tenderness, transformation + becoming of our Birthlooms Storyteller, Joëlle Fontaine.

This Mother’s Day, we honor motherhood as a journey that reshapes us completely, body, spirit, identity + purpose. Through Joëlle’s story in .tdp, Raising Isaiah, we are reminded that birth is not only the arrival of a child, but also the unfolding of a new self.

“My son and I grew up together.”

Her story carries us through the uncertainty of young motherhood, the silence held inside trauma, the profound grief of losing an old version of self, and the radical love that emerges when we allow ourselves to be transformed by mothering.

“My silence wasn’t evidence of ease; it was a trauma response.”

Joëlle’s words offer an honest reflection on Black womanhood, survival + the ways many of us learn to mask pain while carrying impossible expectations of strength. Yet through Isaiah, she found a space where masking could no longer survive, only truth, vulnerability + unconditional love.

“Motherhood reshaped me, molded me into a woman I never imagined I could be.”

From singing lullabies across decades to navigating motherhood alongside an adult son, Joëlle reminds us that mothering is an evolving relationship, one that continually asks us to grow, surrender + trust ourselves more deeply.

“I may not have become the kind of architect I once imagined, but I became an architect all the same…”

Today we celebrate the mothers who are raising children while also raising themselves, the women learning softness after survival, and the generations of Black mothers whose love continues to expand what freedom can look like.

May we remember:

“If I’m honest, Isaiah has been the one raising me.”

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at .black.birthing .tdp +

HaitianMotherhood

The Water Reminds Me
BY PRISCILLA ANDRADE

“The water, something about the water reminds me…”

Journey with us this Mother’s Day through the eyes, waters + wisdom of our Birthlooms Storyteller, Priscilla Andrade

This Mother’s Day, we honor mothering not simply as a title, but as a living, ancestral practice, fluid, transformative, cyclical + sacred. Through Priscilla’s story, The Water Reminds Me, we are reminded that birth is memory, lineage, reclamation + return.

“Mother not as noun, but as verb, a continuous, active, and indefinite series of acts…”

Her words carry us through oceans, womb waters, rivers of inheritance + the quiet knowing passed between mothers, midwives, daughters + ancestors. From mermaid births to home births, from fear to surrender, from severance to reclamation, this story reminds us that Black + Brown birthing traditions have always held deep wisdom.

“I am because I AM
i am from the mothers, the sun, the sky, the sea
we are part of a continuum, undulating.”

Today we celebrate the mothers, grandmothers, comadronas, birthworkers + lineage bearers whose bodies + stories continue to shape our becoming.

May we remember:
“Before the sound of the heartbeat comes the sound of the water.”

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at .black.birthing .tdp +