Inside Machel Montano’s Journey of a Soca King Exhibition
More Than 40 Years of Soca, Memories and History at Brooklyn Public Library
SHARING WITH MEL
Melissa Rose Cooper
8/27/20263 min read
I’ve been a Machel Montano fan for as long as I can remember.
I’m talking posters on my bedroom wall, dancing in front of the television and eventually making my way to fetes, sometimes before I was even old enough to be there. His music has been part of so many stages of my life that certain songs can immediately take me back to a particular time.
So getting the chance to walk through more than four decades of his career at Brooklyn Public Library felt a little surreal.
Journey of a Soca King brings together records, photographs, costumes, trophies and other pieces that trace Machel’s life in music from his early years as a child performer in Trinidad and Tobago to becoming one of soca’s most recognizable artists around the world.
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iPhone 17 Pro Max for quick, handheld shots
DJI Osmo Mobile 6 Smartphone Gimbal for stable walking sequences
XTRA Muse for wide angles and vlogging
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Some of the pieces that stood out to me most were from those early years. Seeing Too Young to Soca memorabilia and images of a very young Machel performing made it easy to understand just how long this journey has been. He started performing when he was seven, and long before the massive Carnival stages, international collaborations and Road March titles, there was a little boy already building the foundation for what would become an extraordinary career.
But what makes the exhibition interesting is that it doesn’t feel like a collection of memorabilia simply placed behind glass. There is a much bigger story about soca, Caribbean culture and the connections Machel built throughout his career. His music crossed genres and borders, and the exhibition also highlights Brooklyn’s place in that journey and the Caribbean diaspora that helped carry soca far beyond Trinidad and Tobago.
Then my visit took a turn I definitely wasn’t expecting. Machel’s mother, Elizabeth Montano, happened to be there.
Of course, I experienced all of this as a fan. There was no separating myself from the little girl who grew up watching Machel on television or the teenager who wanted to be front and center whenever she had the chance.
But I also walked away thinking about what it means to see soca history given this kind of space.
For those of us in the Caribbean diaspora, this music carries memories of family, parties, fetes, Carnival and home. The records, costumes and photographs may belong to one artist’s career but the memories attached to them belong to generations of people who grew up with the music. And getting to walk through that history through the career of an artist whose music has been part of my own life made the experience even more meaningful.
Watch my vlogumentary for a closer look inside Journey of a Soca King and my unexpected conversation with Elizabeth Montano.
Not only was Mrs. Montano walking visitors through the exhibition and sharing stories behind different pieces, but I also had the opportunity to speak with her about the role she played in preserving so much of what we were seeing.
She told me that witnessing the collection come together was a dream she had worked toward for more than four decades. With a background in education, she believed that if you have knowledge and information, you should share it. Hearing that while standing among the records, photographs and items she actually held onto over the years gave the exhibition another layer for me.
Many thanks to Mrs. Montano for taking the time to speak with me, share more stories about her son and give all of us a deeper look at the history she helped preserve.