Darlene Taylor explores identity, race, kinship, place, and the journey from girlhood to womanhood. Re-membering and reclaiming a record of Black survival are at the center of her practice. With artifacts of lived experience: heirloom cloths, vintage handkerchiefs, laces, linens, worn cottons, antique buttons and ribbons, and lyrics, she archives, documents, and reassembles memories in collages that are handstitched on panels of paper and cloth alongside handcut verses of poetry and prose.  The images and verses unravel what is remembered through what is passed down and preserved. The resulting layers of texture and pattern convey vulnerability and resilience. 

She is a fellow of the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, Virginia Center for Creative Arts,  American Antiquarian Society, and the inaugural Aminah Robinson Writer in Residence at the Columbus Museum of Art. Her literary works are published in anthologies and journals, including Feminist Studies, Mom Egg Review, and College Languages Association Journal. Her visual works are in private collections and the Columbus Museum of Art. She calls Washington, DC and the Maryland shore of the Chesapeake Bay home.