Dua Lipa has unveiled Manifesto Library, the first physical extension of her Service95 Book Club, at Livraria Lello as part of the inaugural BABELL – City of Books. Conceived as a permanent cultural destination, the library gives tangible form to the online reading community through a carefully selected collection of banned and censored books celebrating literature, dialogue, and freedom of expression.
A permanent home for banned books
Housed in Livraria Lello’s new auditorium, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza, Manifesto Library features nearly one hundred titles organised around four themes: power, control, voice, and memory.
The shelves bring together books removed from schools, libraries, or public institutions alongside works addressing race, sexuality, and LGBTQIA+ identities. Featured writers include Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Olga Tokarczuk, and Reginald Dwayne Betts, whose work continues to shape debates on censorship, identity, and human rights.
From the Service95 Book Club to a literary space
Founded in 2022, the Service95 Book Club has introduced readers to a new title each month through curated recommendations and conversations with authors. Manifesto Library extends that mission into a permanent public venue where visitors are encouraged to read, question, debate, and engage with ideas that have challenged convention.
Describing the project as “a dream partnership,” Dua Lipa calls it “a shrine to books that have disappeared” and to writers who have confronted systems of power. Instead of placing these works behind glass, the library invites visitors to pick them up, explore them, and celebrate reading as an enduring act of intellectual freedom.
