With 'Copy,' Alum Taylor Stout (BS '21) Cultivates Digital and IRL Communities

Taylor, in a blue blouse and jeans, holds an issue of Copy magazine showing a pink horse on the cover — Taylor Stout at the third birthday bash for *Copy*, the magazine she cofounded.

Taylor Stout, “literary it-girl” and co-founder of Copy, credits the Media, Culture, and Communication major with instilling a desire to build spaces that cultivate community.

When Taylor Stout was approached by a friend in 2021 to be a founder of a new arts publication, she was immediately onboard. It was right after the initial lockdown of the COVID pandemic and she had just graduated from NYU’s Media, Culture, and Communication (MCC) department. Taylor noticed a need for spaces that promote community-based art and cultural production, and jumped at the chance to uplift emerging writers, musicians, and artists.

Taylor was aware of the challenges, and certain stigmas, that can arise with the task of creating something new, and was prepared to tackle them head-on. She says, “My version of ‘let’s start a podcast,’ is ‘let’s make a zine.’”

However, the team didn’t just talk. They immediately went to work, and the first issue of Copy went live online later that year.

Copy, is now a thriving community hub, spilling with original content dedicated to chronicling a post-pandemic cultural reemergence. More than just an online publication, Taylor describes it as a “volunteer-run accessible arts community” composed of three parts. Community cultivation is at the heart of this operation.

Within the editorial branch, you’ll find original reporting, personal essays and cultural commentary from new and emerging writers. It has everything from “reflections on the gentle reverence of Manhattanhenge,” meditations on modern theater and even an advice column to answer readers’ “big gnarly questions.”

The community board showcases art, music, literature, film and other independent works by new artists, specifically those in the “DIY” scene. They also have weekly roundups which spotlight local NYC events like concerts, literary readings and parties.

Copy has a distinct online social presence, and brings the concept of community to life while hosting original events throughout New York City. They’ve further leaned into the “IRL” (in-real-life) component, and produced a print issue, which can be found on shelves at McNally Jackson bookstores.

For Taylor, this is a passion project that has exceeded expectations. She’s managed to balance her full time career as a copy editor in addition to her work on Copy. She’s now the head of editorial, which grants her oversight on the overall curation of Copy’s writing. Her work includes fielding pitches, helping writers develop ideas, editing stories and more. Taylor says she’s overseen the publication of hundreds of articles by writers who’ve submitted their work, and is deeply proud of the fact that she’s championed “perspectives that might be quirkier or more personal than the traditional arts publication would publish.”

Copy just celebrated its third birthday and now has fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas. This fall, a mention in Nylon Magazine referred to Copy as being part of the new scene of “literary it-girls.” Taylor was delighted to be regarded among independent literary outlets like The Drift and Forever Magazine, which Nylon said were making the literary world “more fun” and “accessible to people outside the MFA circuit.”

“My mom would take me to Barnes and Noble after school to buy Nylon,” she recalls, a delightful full-circle moment for Taylor, who grew up with an insatiable love of magazines, and with creating things in general.

Taylor’s propensity toward invention and creation can be traced back to her education and work within the MCC department.

When it came time to apply to college, she was unsure of what exactly she wanted to study. Growing up in California, her many interests included environmentalism, photography, journalism and creative writing; she knew that she didn’t want to be siloed into just one discipline. Browsing NYU’s website led her to the Media, Culture, Communication department, where courses on visual culture, fashion and power, and advertising piqued her interest. The chance to work with multiple types of media, and look at them through theoretical and critical lenses, proved to be the perfect fit.

Taylor first heard of MCC MediaLab her freshman year, but it wasn’t until her junior year, fueled with a desire to start “making things,” and create a tangible body of work, that she joined the lab.

Taylor first heard of MCC MediaLab her freshman year, but it wasn’t until her junior year, fueled with a desire to start “making things,” and create a tangible body of work, that she joined the lab. The MCC MediaLab is a digital media incubator and learning space overseen by a collective of faculty and students within the Department. It aims to offer a supportive, experimental environment where students are introduced to digital media theory and practice including software and programming.

Through the lab, Taylor began taking more “practice-based courses,” which taught her essential skills like HTML coding and Adobe Creative Suite. Through the foundational course, Digital Media: Theory and Practice, she embarked on a semester-long project building a website from scratch, looking at the impact of superstorms in southern Brooklyn.

Taylor was thrilled at the chance to work collaboratively with her fellow students and professors, and applied for the role of a lab assistant. Part of her job duties as an assistant included creating social media posts and newsletters, as well as helping underclassmen with tools like Adobe Creative Suite and coding.

Crucial to Taylor’s professional success, she recalls, was the deep community that the MediaLab fostered, and the ability to “make things that spoke to a personal philosophy.”