New York City Center has unveiled a street mural inspired by the upcoming production of Encores! La Cage Aux Folles (Jun 17 – 28) starring Wayne Brady and Billy Porter. Commissioned by New York City Center, Not Straight Enough by multidisciplinary artist Keyon Monté can be viewed through July 1 on Ludlow Street at the corner of Delancey Street.
Installed by Murals of America, the 35-foot by 12-foot hand-painted street mural, Not Straight Enough, imagines a journey toward sanctuary. A drag queen rides through a dreamlike Paris sky charioteered by butterflies and light. Inspired by Victorian fairy paintings, Lady Liberty, and classical victory imagery, the piece turns migration into something theatrical, dreamlike, and uneasy. The butterflies represent transformation, reinvention, and gentleness, while the banner reading OPEN YOUR EYES acts as both invitation and declaration.
“I was thinking about Black expatriate artists, intellectuals, and queer people who left America searching for room to breathe,” said Keyon Monté. “People who crossed the Atlantic because they were too Black, too queer, too loud, too unwilling to make themselves smaller to survive. The figure feels somewhere between a saint, a refugee, and a monument. I wanted her to feel triumphant, but temporary, like freedom itself could disappear at any moment.”
