Four years on from its inception, Dua Lipa's Service95 Book Club is expanding into the world of bricks and mortar with the announcement of the Manifesto Library, a new, permanent collection of 100 specially curated titles opening in Porto this weekend.

Housed within the newly built expansion of cultural institution Livraria Lello, the collection is "dedicated to books that challenge power, censorship, exclusion and dominant narratives," and organized around themes of "Power," "Control," "Voice," and "Memory."

"When I founded the Service95 Book Club, my ambition was for it to become a home for writers and readers, wherever they are and whatever their circumstances," says Lipa of the "dream partnership," adding:

"Reading the world brings us closer - but sadly, not everyone is in favour of that. Here 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. 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.”

The Manifesto Library will be inaugurated tomorrow evening (June 27) as part of a new international book festival, BABELL – City of Books.

An image shared by Livraria Lello from the "Voice" section shows titles by Alice Walker, Arundhati Roy, Khaled Hosseini, Bernadine Evaristo, Han Kang, and Salman Rushdie, who will be in Porto for the festival along with other authors including Margaret Atwood, Olga Tokarczuk, and Conceição Evaristo, and artist-activist Ai Weiwei.