“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.” Dua Lipa used these words to describe the library, which she opened on 27 June 2026 inside Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal. It is called The Manifesto Library and it is permanent.
The collection has one hundred books that were banned, censored or pulled from school curricula somewhere in the world. Many belong to authors who faced personal or legal consequences for their words. The shelves are divided into four themes, power, control, voice and memory. Among the titles are Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Reginald Dwayne Betts' Felon, and works by Salman Rushdie and Olga Tokarczuk.
The book as a technology of freedom
The library sits in the new cultural auditorium of Livraria Lello, designed by Pritzker Prize laureate Álvaro Siza, and was created as part of the BABELL – City of Books festival. The bookshop, one of the best-known in the world and visited by crowds of tourists every day, hosts it. “For 120 years, Livraria Lello has been built on a simple conviction, the book is a technology of freedom,” said Francisca Pedro Pinto of Livraria Lello, according to Euronews.
The location gives censorship a concrete counterweight. A book that has been pulled from a shelf somewhere now stands in a window in one of the most visited places for readers.
A singer building a media brand
The Manifesto Library is not Dua Lipa's first step towards readers. Service95 Book Club was launched in 2023 as part of her media brand Service95, which alongside the club publishes a newsletter and a podcast. Each month it picks one title, records an interview with the author and adds discussion materials. “Sharing the joy of reading is something I feel really passionately about, so this is a dream come true,” she described the club's purpose.
This is a pattern that makes sense in the creator economy. The artist is not only building a catalogue of songs, she is building an audience around what she reads and recommends. A book club, a newsletter and now a physical library are layers of one brand built on her taste. Service95 works as a media company, not a fan page, and the library in Porto is its most lasting output.
Input determines output
We are only as good at communicating as we are at reading. Whoever reads widely has something to draw on when they have to speak, write or build a brand. Whoever does not read ends up recycling. Dua Lipa's gesture is admirable precisely because it rests on this order. Books first, then the voice.
For anyone building an audience today, this is a practical reminder. The range of what we can say mirrors the range of what we have read. A brand, a creator and an editor all draw on the same stock. A banned book expands it the most, because it brings a perspective that someone tried to silence. Dua Lipa put them in the spotlight and let them speak.
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