A Note from the Editors: Issue 33
Translation as Service: The Case of Arabic Literature
"Often, the [Arabic] stories that are chosen for translation and published by trade presses are, if not orientalist, 'orientalizable.’" Our Arts & Culture Editor reflects on the love and labor required to translate literature to a marginalized language
Consider the Work Ethic of the Starbucks Employee
The girl behind the counter you cruise past at the Departures area. What is her story? Courtney LeBlanc wonders about airport service workers and their transient presences in our lives
How to Tell a True Sex Work Story
"You message her, and she initially thinks you’re a client. She sends over her rates..." Larayb Abrar takes us into the TikTok-fueled open secret of the sex industry in a city of salt
Do I Trust You? An Artist as a Client
In this op-ed, a freelance designer emphasizes the need for mutual trust and collaboration over perfection and control when receiving a creative service
Trash
Chicago-based artist Brian Eaton creates graphic art that explores the often forgotten, discarded, and overlooked aspect of living in a city
Art as Service: Realizing the Value of Theater through Exit 11’s “The Bacchae”
Our Editor-in-Chief reviews a global, remotely-produced audio play within a larger conversation about how art services our lives during a pandemic
UTDOT(Terms)COM
How many times have you mindlessly scrolled past the Terms of Service? Our Multimedia Editor explores the concept of trivializing this tedious document in an age rife with conversations on data privacy and censorship
Calls in Queue
Megan Cannella places us in the mind of a call center worker with a story literally found in the footnotes
The Practicality of Uniformity
New in Style Odyssey, columnist Ayah Rashid examines the history of the uniform—clothing so often associated with service workers—as a fashion statement, referencing convenience, fast fashion, and class dynamics
City of Service
This street photography series captures the people and places that help run Abu Dhabi's daily economy
The Carrying
Polish artist Martyna Benedyka's duo of paintings sees human hands as beautiful tools we carry and use to carry
Left of Center
Nina Parker's black-and-white film photography documents a Drag brunch in San Francisco where drag queens are hired for casual entertainment
J I A
To strive to listen, to keep listening, and to hold space for others is an act of self-service—for one's people, for people of color, and for Black and indigenous lives. J I A is a spoken word installation incorporating waacking on foreignness
Gradually Getting Better
Indonesian artist Yohanes Santos's intricate penmanship manifests as a source of healing where art offers a kind of medicine
Milk Shop
Amid clamoring customers, a woman reaches for literature. A simple, mundane space of service, imbued with hope, desire, and imagination
Lobster and potato bread
Paired with gorgeous photography, a poetic new short story about the emergence of capital in a communist Cuba
My Temple
A mixed-media piece that probes against society's tendency to put a price on female beauty
DEAR COMMISSAR
The poem that's had enough. Enough of the "herbal tea of change rhetoric," enough of hypocritical politics, enough of government-induced suffering
Kulela
Who is the servant and who is the master? A photo series exploring the systemic exploitation of Black women’s domestic and reproductive labor, rejecting the mammy caricature