Machel Montano’s legacy takes center stage in Brooklyn with new soca exhibition

The exhibition celebrates the Soca King’s decades-long career and his deep ties to Brooklyn and the Caribbean community.

Soca legend Machel Montano will be honored in Brooklyn this weekend with an exhibition celebrating his decades-long career and influence on the genre and Caribbean culture.

The Brooklyn Public Library announced that “Journey of a Soca King: The Exhibition,” created by the Machel Montano Foundation for Greatness, will open Saturday at the Central Library. Related programming will be held at branches throughout the borough, according to a news release.

Montano, 51, has maintained a strong connection to Brooklyn and New York City since childhood. In 1984, at age nine, he received a scholarship to the Marie Brooks summer program and attended workshops in the borough that shaped his early career.

He debuted at Madison Square Garden, performing with calypso legends such as the Mighty Sparrow, the Mighty Shadow, and Lord Kitchener. In the mid-1990s, Montano lived on Utica Avenue and recorded his first road march, “Big Truck,” in Brooklyn.

“Brooklyn helped raise me,” Montano said in a news release statement. “I lived here, I learned here, and some of my earliest audiences were right in these neighborhoods. So 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.”

He continued, “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.”

Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Montano began performing at age seven in 1982. His debut album, “Too Young To Soca,” was released in 1985 and launched a career spanning more than five decades. Montano has been dubbed both the King of Soca and the “Michael Jackson of the Caribbean” for helping bring the genre to international audiences and building a dedicated fan base worldwide.

The exhibition includes curated artifacts from Montano’s career, including costumes, trophies and vinyl records. Visitors can listen to a selection of Montano’s music at the Central Library’s vinyl listening station and watch key moments from his life and career, inviting them to experience the artist’s work in a personal, immersive way, per the news release.

The exhibition follows the May release of the documentary “Like Ah Boss: Journey of a Soca King,” which chronicles “Machel Monday,” the soca star’s annual flagship concert series in 2015. The seven-day event featured 16 performances and drew more than 250,000 attendees.

The Brooklyn Public Library’s exhibition uses Montano’s story to highlight the broader history of Brooklyn’s Caribbean diaspora, where generations of immigrants have shaped the borough’s cultural identity through music, art, food, entrepreneurship, and activism.

Library branches across Brooklyn, including the Clarendon, Rugby, Crown Heights, Flatbush and Brower Park locations, will present readings, arts and crafts workshops and cultural experiences for youth and adults. The exhibition will be on view at Central Library from Aug. 22 through Sept. 12, while the documentary will be projected onto the library’s facade on Sept. 3.