MORE than four decades of costumes, photographs, records, awards and memories documenting Machel Montano\u2019s extraordinary career have found a temporary home in Brooklyn, transforming one of New York\u2019s major public libraries into a celebration of soca and Caribbean cultural history.<\/p>\n
\u201cJourney of a Soca King: The Exhibition\u201d is now open at the Brooklyn Public Library\u2019s (BPL) Central Library, following a special preview attended by Montano, his mother Elizabeth \u201cLady\u201d Montano, US Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, elected officials, members of the Caribbean community, media, family and friends.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Selvon Smith, the vice president\u2014Information Technology and the chief information officer of the Brooklyn Public Library, shares a light moment with Machel Montano and Machel\u2019s mother Elizabeth \u201cLady\u201d Montano at the launch of \u201cJourney of a Soca King: The Exhibition\u201d.<\/p>\n
For Montano, the experience of walking through an exhibition devoted to a life he has spent largely looking forward proved unexpectedly revealing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is more than a reflection; this is even a lesson to me just to walk through this exhibit,\u201d Montano said. \u201cI have dreams, but when I walk through this place, I realise sometimes life can give you more than you can ever dream of.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exhibition traces Montano\u2019s evolution from the precocious child performer who emerged in Trinidad and Tobago in the 1980s, to the internationally recognised entertainer who has spent decades carrying soca music and Carnival culture to audiences around the world.<\/p>\n
However, behind many of the objects now displayed in Brooklyn is another story: the foresight of Elizabeth \u201cLady\u201d Montano, who preserved material from her son\u2019s career long before there was any certainty it would one day form part of an international exhibition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a dream of mine to preserve, distribute, and share knowledge,\u201d she said during the preview.<\/p>\n
Lady Montano recalled observing how the histories of major international entertainers were documented and preserved and deciding early in her son\u2019s career that his story (and by extension, a major part of the story of soca) also deserved to be saved.<\/p>\n
Decades later, that collection now allows visitors to encounter Montano\u2019s journey through original memorabilia, stage costumes, photographs, recordings and multimedia installations rather than simply reading about his achievements.<\/p>\n
For Machel, seeing those memories assembled in one place also reinforced the role Brooklyn played in shaping his development.<\/p>\n
That relationship makes Brooklyn a particularly fitting home for the exhibition. The borough has one of the largest Caribbean communities outside the region and has long provided an important meeting point for Caribbean music, migration and culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoca music has given me the platform,\u201d Montano said. \u201cIt\u2019s such joyful music. It\u2019s about celebration. It\u2019s about unity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJourney of a Soca King: The exhibition\u201d continues through September 12, with related programming extending beyond Central Library to BPL branches serving Caribbean communities across Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
One of its most striking upcoming activations takes place on September 3, when Like Ah Boss: Journey of a Soca King, the documentary chronicling Montano\u2019s career, is scheduled to be projected onto the fa\u00e7ade of Central Library as part of an outdoor presentation accompanied by music on the Plaza.<\/p>\n
The location carries considerable musical symbolism, as in 2023, lyrics from Brooklyn-born hip-hop superstar Jay-Z\u2019s catalogue were projected across the same library fa\u00e7ade during The Book of HOV, BPL\u2019s sprawling exhibition celebrating the life and career of the rapper and entrepreneur.<\/p>\n
Three years later, that landmark exterior will become a canvas for a Caribbean story, bringing images from the journey of one of soca\u2019s most successful ambassadors into the Brooklyn night.<\/p>\n
For Montano, the exhibition is therefore about more than revisiting his own accomplishments. It offers an opportunity for the Caribbean community to see part of its cultural history preserved and presented with institutional weight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a special moment to look back on your career and see it preserved in such a professional manner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of gives you a little feeling of satisfaction or accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MORE than four decades of costumes, photographs, records, awards and memories documenting Machel Montano\u2019s extraordinary career have found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,1106,610,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-332898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-features","tag-local","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332898","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=332898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}