NYC First Lady Rama Duwaji Collaborates with Dua Lipa on London Art Installation
Duwaji, an artist, provided animation for the pop star's public art campaign for the London Literature Festival.
NYC First Lady Rama Duwaji has again traveled overseas, this time to England, where she collaborated with global pop star Dua Lipa on an art installation for the 2026 London Literature Festival. Duwaji, a Syrian-American artist, provided animation for Lipa’s “Read the World Differently” public art and billboard campaign. The campaign centers around Lipa’s Service95 Book Club, a global reading initiative.
Lipa, who is curating the festival scheduled for October 20 to November 1, provided the text for the collaboration, according to FirstPost.com. Duwaji shared her work on Instagram, writing, “I ❤️ BOOKS.”
This is not the first time Duwaji has traveled abroad since her husband, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, was sworn into office. In July, she was criticized for traveling to Mallorca, Spain, for an Islamic “spiritual wellness” retreat instead of attending America’s 250th anniversary celebration. Also in July, she served as a host and artist-in-residence for a retreat in Corsica, France, that honored “the legacy of Mary, the most honored woman in the Quran.”
In August, she resumed her role as an artist-in-residence with The Women Sanctuary for a retreat in Porto, Portugal, focused on Islamic calligraphy. The Women Sanctuary has previously posted content calling for the destruction of Israel and the cleansing of Palestine of its “oppressors.”
Duwaji has a history of critical posts regarding Israel and the United States. In 2015, her now-inactive Tumblr account featured praise for Palestinian plane hijacker Leila Khaled and members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, alongside a reposted message accusing U.S. service members of “mercilessly slaughtering 3rd world civilians” to maintain “American hegemony.”