Dua Lipa just wants to get the world to crack open a book. Since 2021, the pop star has championed literary arts with her Service95 book club. Now, Lipa is moving that mission forward by opening her very own library.
The first physical version of Service95, titled the Manifesto Library, will open on June 27 as part of new international book festival, BABELL – City of Books. Lipa’s library will permanently reside inside the famed Livraria Lello bookshop in Porto, Portugal.
In a press release, Lipa called the new library “a dream partnership” and a result of years pushing her 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 favor of that,” Lipa said, adding, “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.”
She continued: “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. You are invited to visit and decide for yourself what belongs on these shelves. Because sometimes the most subversive thing you can do is read a book and then talk about it.”
Nearly 100 books will be present in Livraria Lello’s new cultural auditorium with each relating to four key themes: power, control, voice, and memory. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Reginald Dwayne Betts’ Felon alongside selected works from Salman Rushdie and Olga Tokarczuk will also be available in the Manifesto Libarary.
“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,” Head of Brand at Livraria Lello Francisca Pedro Pinto said in a statement. “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.”
