Dua LipaDua Lipa has partnered with Livraria Lello, the world’s most beautiful bookshop, to open The Manifesto Library – a library of banned, censored, and restricted books.
In recent years, the Levitating star has become one of the most important names in contemporary literature, connecting audiences with modern storytelling through the launch of her Service95 Book Club in 2023.
Broadway World notes that the Manifesto Library will be home to books that “challenge power, censorship, exclusion and dominant narratives,” including The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and Felon by Reginald Dwayne Betts.
The Manifesto Library will open its doors on Saturday, 27 June, as part of Fundação Livraria Lello’s new international festival, BABELL – City of Books. Authors represented in the library, such as Salman Rushdie and Olga Tokarczuk, among others, will attend the launch this weekend.
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The library will be found in Livraria Lello’s new cultural auditorium, which has been designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza. It holds 100 books curated around four themes: Power, Control, Voice, and Memory.
With The Manifesto Library, Lipa expands the vision of her Service95 Book Club. She explained in a statement:
The Manifesto Library is a dream partnership between Livraria Lello and the Service95 Book Club. For over a century, Livraria Lello has been a source of inspiration for radicals, writers and readers, and every day, visitors from all over the world walk through its doors. It is the perfect home for the Manifesto Library.
Here, you will find one hundred books that ask questions or have been questioned. Some have been banned by school districts for themes of race or sexuality. Others, written for LGBTQIA+ readers, have been restricted from display. In some cases, the author has paid for their words with their life.
This library is a shrine to books that have disappeared, to authors whose courage unmasks structures of power and control, and to readers who refuse to be told what book they are allowed to read.
In May, Lipa unveiled her latest live album and concert film, Dua Lipa (Live from Mexico), the latter of which was posted to view for free on YouTube, where she celebrated her latest album, Radical Optimism.
Lipa brought her Radical Optimism tour to Australia last March. Each night on her Australian run, the British singer-songwriter performed a “surprise song” and ensured that each song she covered was recorded by an Australian artist.
Find out which songs she chose here.
