\n\tAcclaimed soca artist and performer\u00a0Machel\u00a0Montano\u2019s career and life will be celebrated in a new exhibit in New York City. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe Brooklyn Public Library has announced \u201cJourney of a Soca King: The Exhibition,\u201d\u00a0which opens Saturday, August 22, at its Central Library location. The exhibition<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 created by the\u00a0Machel\u00a0Montano Foundation for Greatness \u2014 will be accompanied by programming at various branches across the borough and showcase Montano\u2019s lifelong contributions to soca music and Caribbean culture. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBrooklyn helped raise me. I lived here, I learned here, and some of my earliest audiences were right in these neighborhoods,\u201d said\u00a0Montano in a statement. \u201cSo for this work to come back to Brooklyn, in a place that is free and open to anybody who walks through the door, means everything. The Caribbean community built a home here, and this exhibition is a way of acknowledging the mark we as a people have made on this city. What moves me most is thinking about a young person walking in, seeing the costumes and the trophies and the records, and understanding that this came from a small island and reached the world. I hope every child who visits leaves knowing their culture deserves that kind of space.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cJourney of a Soca King: The Exhibition\u201d\u00a0highlights how the city of Brooklyn played a key role in his early career. In 1984, a nine-year-old Montano spent time in the borough after being selected for a Marie Brooks summer programming scholarship, which gave him access to workshops that shaped his formative years. He later debuted\u00a0at Madison Square Garden, supporting calypso legends like the Mighty Sparrow, the Mighty Shadow, and Lord Kitchener. In the mid-1990s, Montano lived on Utica Avenue and recorded \u201cBig Truck,\u201d<\/a> his first road march with Xtatik in Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe exhibit will also include curated artifacts from Montano\u2019s career, including costumes, trophies, and vinyl records. Visitors will also have the opportunity to listen to a selection of Montano\u2019s music at the Central Library\u2019s vinyl listening station and more. It\u2019s also sponsored by Tourism Trinidad Limited, TATIL Insurance, Unit Trust Corporation (UTC), Horizons Art Gallery, Reliable Customs Service, The Lost Tribe Atelier Team, and Kwamena Hayfron-Benjamin.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to welcome\u00a0Machel\u00a0Montano to Brooklyn Public Library,\u201d said\u00a0Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO, Brooklyn Public Library. \u201cBrooklyn is home to one of the largest Caribbean populations outside the Caribbean, and the Library is committed to preserving and sharing the stories, histories, and cultural contributions of the communities we serve. This exhibition will offer visitors an opportunity to explore the enduring impact of Caribbean music and culture through the life and career of one of its most influential and beloved artists.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJourney of a Soca King: The Exhibition\u201d follows the release of his 2026 documentary\u00a0Like Ah Boss: Journey of a Soca King, which centers on Montano\u2019s 16 performances during the 2015 Carnival season and much more. The documentary will also be projected on the facade of Central Library on Thursday,\u00a0September 3.\u00a0\u00a0For more information about the exhibit and its upcoming programming, visit the Brooklyn Public Library\u2019s official website<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Acclaimed soca artist and performer\u00a0Machel\u00a0Montano\u2019s career and life will be celebrated in a new exhibit in New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,121232,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-327004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-machel-montano","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}