New York City First Lady Rama Duwaji has left the country again to work with pop star Dua Lipa on a London literature festival art project, extending a run of overseas trips since her husband took office.

The New York Post reported that Duwaji, a Syrian-American artist and wife of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, provided animation for Dua Lipa’s “Read the World Differently” public art and billboard campaign tied to the 2026 London Literature Festival.

Lipa supplied the words. The project centers on the singer’s Service95 Book Club and runs with the festival from Oct. 20 to Nov. 1. Duwaji marked the work on Instagram with a simple line: “I ❤️ BOOKS,” while showing off the piece.

The collaboration puts the city’s first lady back in England after a stretch of foreign travel that began soon after Mamdani was sworn in on Jan. 1. Taxpayers who watch City Hall for basic delivery now see a first lady building an international art résumé instead.

Lipa’s festival gets Duwaji’s animation

Dua Lipa is curating the London Literature Festival. Her campaign aims to push the Service95 Book Club into public view through art and billboards. Duwaji’s role was the animation side of that push.

FirstPost.com reported that Lipa handled the text and Duwaji handled the moving images. The first lady’s Instagram post framed the finished work as a love letter to reading. No city government portfolio or official New York brief was listed alongside the project.

High-profile figures have made politics and travel a public brand in recent years, from artists talking exit plans to elected spouses logging passport stamps. One earlier case involved Art Garfunkel discussing leaving the U.S. over political gripes. Duwaji’s pattern is different in form but plain in the itinerary: repeated time abroad while her husband runs the largest city in America.

Mallorca, Corsica, and Porto came first

After the January swearing-in, Duwaji’s calendar filled with foreign stops. In July she attended an Islamic “spiritual wellness” retreat on Mallorca, the Spanish resort island, timed ahead of America’s 250th anniversary observances.

The same period put her in Corsica, France, as host and artist-in-residence for a sold-out retreat run by The Women Sanctuary. That gathering honored “the legacy of Mary, the most honored woman in the Quran.”

A month later she resumed the artist-in-residence role with the same group in Porto, Portugal, for a “Journey through Islamic Calligraphy” retreat. Three countries. Multiple billed creative posts. Little sign of a steady New York public schedule in the same window.

Women Sanctuary’s record sits in plain view

The group hosting those retreats has not been quiet about Israel. In an October 2025 Instagram post, The Women Sanctuary wrote:

"The apartheid colonial state of Israel has committed a genocide against the Palestinian people," "Abolish the colonial apartheid state of Israel. Free Palestine."

S1 states the organization has called for the destruction of Israel and for “Palestine” to be cleansed of its “oppressors.” Duwaji’s repeated artist-in-residence billing with that group is a choice, not an accident of scheduling.

New Yorkers who expect a first lady to model civic seriousness can weigh that affiliation against the soft language of book clubs and calligraphy retreats. The posts are public. The partnerships are public. The gap between City Hall’s domestic duties and this overseas circuit is public too.

Older posts praised a plane hijacker

Duwaji’s record does not start in 2025. On a now-inactive Tumblr account in 2015, she praised Palestinian plane hijacker Leila Khaled and members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

She also reposted a tirade that accused U.S. service members of “mercilessly slaughtering 3rd world civilians” to maintain “American hegemony.” Those lines are old. They are also part of the same public trail now sitting beside a first lady title.

S1 describes a long history of hard criticism of Israel and the United States. The London project with Dua Lipa does not erase that history. It simply adds another overseas credit while her husband governs New York.

City Hall’s first lady keeps the passport busy

Mamdani took the oath on Jan. 1. Since then the verified stops include Mallorca, Corsica, Porto, and now London work tied to a festival that runs into early November. Duwaji is a Dallas-raised, Dubai-educated artist. She is also the spouse of the mayor of New York City.

The animation for Lipa’s “Read the World Differently” campaign may be competent art. The question for voters is simpler: how often the first lady is abroad, who platforms her, and what those platforms have said about America and its allies.

Book-club billboards in London will not fix subway disorder, housing pressure, or public-safety basics at home. A first lady’s calendar is not a substitute for results. When the travel and the affiliations stack up this fast, residents are entitled to notice.