Dua Lipa opens Manifesto Library in Porto, a permanent home for books that challenge power and censorship

Pop singer Dua Lipa is moving her literary advocacy from screen to shelf. The British-Albanian artist opens the Manifesto Library this Saturday, 27 June, inside Porto’s famed Livraria Lello bookshop. The permanent space, developed with Lello’s brand team, is the first physical outpost of Lipa’s Service95 book club and arrives as part of the inaugural BABELL – City of Books festival.

A sanctuary for challenged books

The library houses 100 works that have been banned, censored or publicly challenged, as well as titles that probe questions of identity, free speech and political control. Selections include Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Reginald Dwayne Betts’s Felon and writings by Salman Rushdie, Olga Tokarczuk, Conceição Evaristo, Trevor Noah and others. The volumes sit inside the new cultural auditorium designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza, accessible via the bookshop’s ticketed entrance.

“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.”

Four themes, one statement

Rather than an archive of censorship, the Manifesto Library is conceived as a living cultural venue for reading, debate and public reflection. The collection is divided into four categories: Power, Control, Voice and Memory. Programming is designed to bring the texts to life through conversation and collective participation.

“For 120 years, Livraria Lello has been built on a simple conviction: the book is a technology of freedom. The Manifesto Library grows from that belief. Because what is at stake is not only the future of reading, but a society’s ability to imagine, interpret and build its own future.”

The platform behind the project

Service95 launched in 2021 as a free platform combining a book club, articles, essays and exclusive author interviews. Lipa describes it as a home for writers and readers regardless of their circumstances. The Manifesto Library marks the project’s first permanent physical presence, a step she calls a “dream partnership” and the result of years of pushing the mission forward.

“When I founded the Service95 Book Club, my ambition was for it to become a home for writers and readers, wherever they are and whatever their circumstances. Reading the world brings us closer – but sadly, not everyone is in favour of that.”