Dua Lipa's Manifesto Library

Dua Lipa’s Manifesto Library is a permanent collection of 100 banned, censored or contested books opened at Livraria Lello in Porto in June 2026, extending the Service95 Book Club she founded in 2021. Its organizing idea is that literature can challenge authority and preserve voices and histories that power seeks to suppress. The books are grouped under four themes: POWER, on political and social authority; CONTROL, on surveillance, propaganda and ideological influence; VOICE, on marginalized identities and narrative authority; and MEMORY, on war, dictatorship, exile and collective trauma. The collection spans fiction, memoir, poetry and nonfiction, from classics such as 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale to contemporary works including Gender Queer and The Hate U Give.

The accompanying catalogue documents censorship records for 58 of the 100 titles, with ban counts that show how frequently some books have been challenged: Nineteen Minutes has 147 recorded bans, The Kite Runner 124, and The Handmaid’s Tale 118. Other listed works have only one documented ban. The remaining 42 titles are included in the library but lack a verified formal book-ban record in the catalogue; some were contested through litigation or adaptations instead. The collection therefore brings together books with different kinds and degrees of censorship, while distinguishing documented bans from broader disputes. Its stated purpose is to offer a sanctuary for threatened books and authors and affirm readers’ freedom to choose what they read.