Titled “If you don’t want your children to know the truth about life don’t send ’em to the theater” the artwork by Christopher Myers at Church Av (B,Q) brings together the storied theatrical histories of Flatbush and the performance traditions of the Caribbean and African diasporas that continue to define the neighborhood’s cultural life. To create the site-specific work, Myers researched the area immediately surrounding the station, which formed the heart of a bustling Brooklyn theater district in the early 20th century.

Rich red curtains and ornate framing recall the neighborhood’s long‑gone palaces of performance—venues once filled with gilded ornament, velvet drapery, and immersive environments that characterized American vaudeville. Today, the nearby, restored Kings Theatre continues that tradition of architectural grandeur and theatrical presence.

In the artwork, Myers pays homage to illustrator and painter Willy Pogány, whose murals imparted dream-like sensibilities to New York public spaces, by reimagining Pogány’s iconic motif of a hand casting stardust through Myers’ own collage-driven visual language. Across three of the mosaic walls, Myers integrates figures from early vaudeville and burlesque history. Among them are Bessie McCoy Davis, known for her husky voice and acrobatic clown-suit routines; Lottie Collins, famed for her virtuosic skipping-rope dance; and Jackie “Moms” Mabley, the trailblazing comedian whose incisive humor forms the title of the artwork.

Linking these theatrical histories to the exuberance and storytelling traditions of Caribbean carnival culture, three monumental Moko Jumbies stride across the mosaics. The stilt‑walking figures from Afro‑Caribbean folklore, seen annually in Brooklyn’s West Indian Day Parade, embody celebration, protection, and the spiritual dynamism of carnival processions. Through them, Myers connects Flatbush’s past with its ongoing tradition of theatricality and community storytelling.

Christopher Myers (b. New York City in 1974) earned his B.A. in Art-Semiotics and American Civilization with a focus on race and culture from Brown University in 1995 and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Studio Program in 1996. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally at venues including MoMA PS1, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; The Mistake Room, Guadalajara, Mexico; Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH; Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX; Contrast Gallery, Shanghai; Goethe-Institut, Accra, Ghana; Kigali Genocide Memorial Center, Rwanda; San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY. Myers has a site-specific commission for the Studio Museum in Harlem, and is working on a Percent for Art Commission at the Brooklyn Brownsville Public Library. His work is included in the permanent collections of institutions including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Lucas Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA; Nasher Museum at Duke University, Durham, NC, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY. Myers won a Caldecott Honor in 1998 for his illustrations in the book Harlem and a Coretta Scott King Award in 2016 for illustrating Firebird with Misty Copeland. Myers currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.