LONDON LITERATURE FESTIVAL Lineup Curated by Dua Lipa to Feature Patti Smith
The Southbank Centre program marks its 75th anniversary year and includes events from Dua Lipa's Service95 Book Club.
The Southbank Centre has announced the programme for Dua Lipa's curation of the LONDON LITERATURE FESTIVAL, part of the venue's 75th anniversary year. The festival's opening weekend will include in-conversation events featuring Dua Lipa alongside Zadie Smith, Mustafa and Patti Smith, with additional programming curated through her Service95 Book Club.
Dua Lipa © Madison Phipps; Mustafa photo by Jack Mckain, Patti Smith photo by Steven Sebring; Zadie Smith photo by Ben Bailey-Smith
The Southbank Centre today announces Dua Lipa's London Literature Festival programme, taking place from Wednesday 21 October to Sunday 1 November, as part of the Southbank Centre's 75th anniversary year.
As part of her curation of London Literature Festival, Dua will be in conversation in the opening weekend with Zadie Smith (Saturday 24 October, 3pm), Mustafa (Saturday 24 October, 8pm), and Patti Smith (Sunday 25 October, 7.30pm) as well as curating a number of other events across the festival with her Service95 Book Club.
Commenting on her curation of the festival lineup, Dua Lipa said: 'Curating the line up for the London Literature Festival with my Service95 Book Club has been a true joy and I'm so proud of the programme we have created. We'll be joined by icons as well as emerging voices from across the arts the world needs to know. You will recognize some as friends of the book club, and others may be your first introduction, but ultimately, I wanted to create a space that brings together some of the most exciting writers, poets, and thinkers from around the globe. I'm looking forward to being both in-conversation and taking my seat in the audience at this iconic venue.'
DUA LIPA & SERVICE95 EVENTS
Dua Lipa's events feature a mix of literary icons and dynamic emerging voices. On Saturday 24 October at 3pm, Dua will be in conversation with Zadie Smith as they discuss Zadie's extraordinary 2000 debut novel; White Teeth, a work of ambitious scope that was published when she was just 24 years old. The two will talk about learning to live with an artistic legacy earned at such a young age and speculate on what life in London might look like for the Joneses and the Iqbals in today's political climate.
On Saturday 24 October at 8pm, Dua will sit down with her friend Mustafa, the Sudanese-Canadian poet, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker, for a conversation about the poems that move them and Mustafa's poetry publication NOUR. Mustafa will talk about his lifelong relationship with poetry and together, they will discuss their poetry idols, in an evening featuring readings by very special guests.
On Sunday 25 October at 7:30pm, Patti Smith, one of the most captivating artists at work today, will discuss her intimate and unguarded memoir Bread of Angels with Dua, which traces her life from a post-war childhood through to her artistic coming-of-age, her marriage to Fred 'Sonic' Smith, and her return to performing after Fred's death. Together, they will explore the healing potential of art and the power of artistic freedom.
Dua's curation also involves a number of events curated by the Service95 Book Club in partnership with the Southbank Centre. Highlights include A Conversation with Nadia Murad (Thursday 22 October), Translated Fiction Showcase (Wednesday 28 October), Fierce Sounds featuring Kae Tempest alongside a stellar line up of boundary-pushing novelists (Friday 30 October) and Rewriting Male Tenderness (Saturday 31 October).
Presented in association with Service95, the London Literature Festival will also feature events with best-selling authors Hernan Diaz (Wednesday 21 October) and Malorie Blackman (Wednesday 28 October).
SUPPORTING THE NEXT GENERATION OF WRITERS
The Southbank Centre's commitment to supporting the next generation of artists continues, with a special edition of Indie Night in association with Service95 (Friday 23 October) – celebrating independent presses and the authors they publish while Debut London Literature returns to celebrate a new line-up of debut writers from the capital (Sunday 25 October). Another staple of the festival, Creative Future Writers' Day returns to celebrate underrepresented writers, with a live-streamed Awards Ceremony. In association with Service95, Out-Spoken returns for an evening of poetry and live music, celebrating diversity in voice and performance with a line-up of the hottest UK poets and world-class musicians including Alice Oswald, Max Porter and Kwame Dawes (Friday 23 October). A special multi-artform event Tice Cin: Safe Spaces (Thursday 29 October) sees a star-studded cast perform excerpts and monologues from her book Safe Spaces including BODUR with beats by KMNC, Tice Cin and Ikonika.
Dua Lipa is set to discuss Zadie Smith's 2000 debut novel White Teeth during the opening weekend, part of a broader slate of events bringing together writers, poets and thinkers as part of the Service95 Book Club programming across the festival.
