By Nigel Telesford (Trinidad & Tobago Guardian)- More than four decades after a nine-year-old Machel Montano travelled from Trinidad and Tobago to Brooklyn to develop his craft, the soca star’s journey is returning to the borough, this time as the subject of a major cultural exhibition.
“The Journey of a Soca King: The Exhibition” opened at Brooklyn Public Library’s (BPL) Central Library yesterday and runs through September 12.
Costumes, trophies, vinyl records and other artefacts from Montano’s personal archive will be displayed, while visitors can listen to selections from his music and view significant moments from his life and career.
The exhibition places the story of one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most successful cultural exports within one of the world’s largest Caribbean diaspora communities.
For Montano, the occasion is deeply personal.
“Brooklyn helped raise me. I lived here, I learned here, and some of my earliest audiences were right in these neighbourhoods,” he said.
“So for this work to come back to Brooklyn, in a place that is free and open to anybody who walks through the door, that means everything.”
Montano’s relationship with Brooklyn began in 1984 when, at age nine, he received a scholarship to participate in Marie Brooks’ summer programme.
He later performed at Madison Square Garden alongside calypso icons including the Mighty Sparrow, Mighty Shadow and Lord Kitchener. By the mid-1990s, Montano and his team were staying on Utica Avenue for periods of time and recorded Big Truck there in Brooklyn. The song went on to become his first Trinidad and Tobago Road March winner.
BPL president and CEO Linda E Johnson said the exhibition reflects the borough’s strong Caribbean identity.
“Brooklyn 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,” she said.
Programming will also extend to BPL branches in Caribbean communities across Brooklyn.
Montano said the exhibition’s potential impact on young people is particularly meaningful.
“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,” he said.
“I hope every child who visits leaves knowing that their culture deserves that kind of space.”
The exhibition follows the 2026 release of Like Ah Boss: Journey of a Soca King, with the documentary scheduled to be projected onto the façade of Central Library on September 3.
The activation will place Montano’s story on the same Brooklyn landmark that became a canvas for another global music icon three years ago.
In 2023, lyrics from hip-hop superstar Jay-Z’s catalogue were projected across Central Library as part of The Book of HOV, BPL’s sprawling exhibition celebrating the Brooklyn-born rapper and entrepreneur.
Now, BPL is turning its cultural lens towards soca and the Caribbean, using Montano’s journey from Trinidad and Tobago to the world to explore the cultural influence of a community deeply woven into Brooklyn’s identity.
The exhibition draws from Montano’s personal archive, which was inscribed in 2024 on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register for Latin America and the Caribbean.
“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,” Montano concluded.
