Dua Lipa and Livraria Lello Launch The Manifesto Library Dedicated to Banned and Censored Books
The Manifesto Library will be inaugurated on the evening of June 27 as part of BABELL – City of Books.
Livraria Lello and the Service95 Book Club, founded by Dua Lipa, have set the opening of the Manifesto Library, a permanent library dedicated to books that challenge power, censorship, exclusion and dominant narratives.
Located within Livraria Lello’s new cultural auditorium, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza, the Manifesto Library brings together 100 books organized around four themes: Power, Control, Voice and Memory. More than a library, it has been conceived as a living cultural space for reading, debate and public reflection. The books are activated through cultural programming, conversation and collective participation.
The Manifesto Library represents the first permanent physical expression of the Service95 Book Club’s editorial vision. Created in partnership with Livraria Lello, the Manifesto Library builds on the bookshop's longstanding role as a place of reading and cultural exchange, creating a new platform for dialogue, participation and contemporary thought. The Manifesto Library is not an archive of censorship, but aims to be a contemporary statement about the role of books in society.
"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," says Dua Lipa. "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."
While many of the books included have been banned, censored or publicly challenged, others continue to provoke debate around identity, freedom of expression, race, gender, memory and political power. The collection includes works such as The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and Felon by Reginald Dwayne Betts, among many others.
The Manifesto Library will be inaugurated on the evening of June 27 as part of BABELL – City of Books, the new international festival promoted by Fundação Livraria Lello, where Salman Rushdie, Olga Tokarczuk, and several other authors who are represented in the library will be present.
The opening will recreate the spirit of the Book Tasting events hosted by the Service95 Book Club, bringing together books, conversation and Portuguese wines selected by Sogrape in a social experience designed to return reading to the center of public life.
In recent years, Dua Lipa has emerged as one of the most influential voices connecting new audiences with contemporary literature. Through the Service95 Book Club, she has interviewed some of the most important writers of our time, including Margaret Atwood, Olga Tokarczuk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Percival Everett, helping bring books and literary conversation back to the center of contemporary culture.
Photo Credit: Alexandre Delmar
