Singer Dua Lipa has partnered with Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal, to open a physical library for banned and censored books.
The Manifesto Library, an extension of the singer’s Service95 Book Club, is dedicated to books “that challenge power, censorship, exclusion, and dominant narratives.” The library, which opened June 27, is located in Livraria Lello’s new cultural auditorium which was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza. The library was also conceived “as a living cultural space for reading, debate, and public reflection,” per a press release.
The Manifesto Library holds 100 books that touch on four themes: power, control, voice and memory. As explained by Service95:
Power examines who holds influence, who challenges it, and who gets to define the narratives we inherit. The section includes “The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir, “Felon” by Reginald Dwayne Betts, “Free” by Lea Ypi, Omar El Akkad’s “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” and “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell.
Control maps the mechanisms through which freedom of thought is constrained: surveillance, propaganda, ideology and the quieter instruments of institutional pressure. On these shelves: “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, “The Trial” by Franz Kafka, “The Memory Police” by Yoko Ogawa, and “Ai Weiwei on Censorship” by artist and activist Ai Weiwei.
Voice amplifies perspectives that have been systematically excluded or overlooked. The section features “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong and “My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction By Afghan Women.”
Memory examines the relationship between history and erasure. These books preserve personal and collective testimony in the face of deliberate forgetting, particularly across contexts of war, dictatorship, exile and injustice. Among them: “Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee, “Patriot” by Alexei Navalny, “The Unbearable Lightness Of Being” by Milan Kundera and “The Books Of Jacob” by Olga Tokarczuk.
“Reading the world brings us closer—but sadly, not everyone is in favour of that,” Lipa explained in a statement. “[At the Manifesto Library] 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,” she added. “You are invited to visit and decide for yourself what belongs on these shelves. Because sometimes the most subversive thing you can do is read a book and then talk about it.”
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Feature image: Interior of the Manifesto Library, courtesy of Service95.
