Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club Reveals June Title; Launches Companion Podcast

In celebration of its second anniversary, Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club has announced the launch of a companion podcast. Aptly titled Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa, book club readers will now be able to listen to Dua’s one-on-one interviews with authors each month on the go via their preferred podcast platform. To launch the podcast series, Dua will be joined by Jennifer Clement, whose book Widow Basquiat has been selected as June’s Monthly Read. Check out the podcast trailer below.

On Basquiat's memoir, Dua comments, “On one level, Widow Basquiat is a chaotic love story between the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and his lover and muse, Suzanne Malouk. Just 20 years old when they meet, we witness them hustling to make it in 1980s New York: a place where anything feels possible but that also hides a dark and sinister side of drugs, violence and racism. The book is also a remarkably deep, tender and, at times, disturbing study of these two young souls – their difficult childhoods, the clubs, bars and galleries they inhabit and the forces of ambition, jealousy and excess that ultimately lead to Basquiat's death at the age of only 27.”

Dua adds, “Today Jean-Michel Basquiat’s art can be seen everywhere from gallery walls to high-top sneakers – and yet he remains an enigma. This book allowed me to see both the artist and his work in a totally different way, giving insights to the symbols and words that repeat in his paintings and revealing the true creative genius behind the icon. It’s also a thrill to witness the evolution of Suzanne Malouk – the artist, muse and bohemian spirit whose light shines so brightly on these pages.”

“Along the way, we meet a cast of characters that reads like a who’s who of New York’s early 1980s creative scene: Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Fab 5 Freddy, Rammellzee, Madonna – they’re all here. As much as anything, this is a love letter to an almost mythical New York City that no longer exists. To say I loved Widow Basquiat is an understatement. I’m sure you will too,” Dua ends.

In Dua’s interview with Jennifer, which will be released June 10th, the two talk about how a person’s childhood shapes them, the patterns of behavior one often repeats, and the bars, clubs, galleries and artists that made up the New York creative scene in the 1980s. 

Additional book club content to be released June 10th includes a poem from Jennifer, her reading list and playlist, as well as an essay on addiction and an extract from See What You Are Missing by art critic Will Gompertz.

The Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa podcast is the newest addition to Dua’s Service95 platform, which now consists of the aforementioned book club, Dua’s At Your Service podcast, and the flagship Service95 newsletter and website. 

You can follow Service95 on socials to get the latest, listen to the new podcast Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to the newsletter here to stay in the loop on upcoming monthly reads.

About Jennifer Clement

Jennifer Clement is President Emerita of the human rights and freedom of expression organization PEN International and the only woman to hold the office of President (2015-2021) since the organization was founded in 1921. Under her leadership, the groundbreaking PEN International Women’s Manifesto and The Democracy of the Imagination Manifesto were created. As President of PEN Mexico (2009-2012), Clement was instrumental in changing the law to make the crime of killing a journalist a federal crime. She was born in 1960 and has lived in Mexico since 1961. She is a graduate of New York University. She is the author of the memoirs Widow Basquiat and The Promised Party, as well and five novels: A True Story Based on Lies, The Poison That Fascinates, Prayers for the Stolen, Gun Love and Stormy People. She has also published several poetry collections including Poems and Errors.

About Dua Lipa