Machel honoured as soca lights up Brooklyn

Nigel Teles­ford

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

So­ca star Machel Mon­tano re­ceived mul­ti­ple of­fi­cial ho­n­ours in New York last Thurs­day, as thou­sands gath­ered out­side the Brook­lyn Pub­lic Li­brary (BPL) to watch the sto­ry of his life and ca­reer pro­ject­ed on­to the façade of the land­mark build­ing.

The Sep­tem­ber 3 event fea­tured an out­door screen­ing of the doc­u­men­tary Like Ah Boss: Jour­ney of a So­ca King at BPL’s Cen­tral Li­brary, trans­form­ing the build­ing and sur­round­ing plaza in­to a vi­brant cel­e­bra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s mu­sic and cul­ture.

Dra­mat­ic aer­i­al pho­tographs cap­tured spec­ta­tors fill­ing the venue and ex­tend­ing in­to the sur­round­ing streets near Grand Army Plaza, as Mon­tano’s im­age and Jour­ney of a So­ca King brand­ing il­lu­mi­nat­ed the li­brary’s ex­te­ri­or.

The event reached reg­is­tra­tion ca­pac­i­ty ahead of the screen­ing, with crowds spilling be­yond the des­ig­nat­ed view­ing area. Held as part of the on­go­ing Jour­ney of a So­ca King ex­hi­bi­tion, the evening al­so saw Mon­tano ho­n­oured by sev­er­al New York of­fi­cials for his con­tri­bu­tions to so­ca mu­sic, Caribbean cul­ture and the city’s Caribbean com­mu­ni­ty.

Brook­lyn Dis­trict At­tor­ney Er­ic Gon­za­lez is­sued a procla­ma­tion recog­nis­ing Mon­tano “for his ex­tra­or­di­nary con­tri­bu­tions to so­ca mu­sic, Caribbean cul­ture, and the cul­tur­al life of Brook­lyn.” New York State As­sem­bly Mem­ber Bri­an Cun­ning­ham pre­sent­ed a ci­ta­tion com­mem­o­rat­ing the Like Ah Boss screen­ing, de­scrib­ing Mon­tano as an in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed Trinida­di­an so­ca artiste, per­former, song­writer and cul­tur­al am­bas­sador.

The ci­ta­tion not­ed that Mon­tano’s work has strength­ened the glob­al vis­i­bil­i­ty and ap­pre­ci­a­tion of Caribbean cul­ture and ac­knowl­edged his in­flu­ence in New York, where Caribbean com­mu­ni­ties have main­tained strong cul­tur­al ties across gen­er­a­tions.

A sep­a­rate New York State As­sem­bly ci­ta­tion, pre­sent­ed by As­sem­bly Mem­ber Monique Chan­dler-Wa­ter­man, recog­nised Mon­tano and the Machel Mon­tano Foun­da­tion for Great­ness in con­nec­tion with Jour­ney of a So­ca King: The Ex­hi­bi­tion.

New York City Pub­lic Ad­vo­cate Ju­maane D. Williams al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed Mon­tano on the ex­hi­bi­tion, de­scrib­ing its stag­ing in Brook­lyn as es­pe­cial­ly sig­nif­i­cant.

“For more than four decades, you have brought the sound and spir­it of Trinidad and To­ba­go to au­di­ences around the world,” Williams wrote, not­ing Mon­tano’s long­stand­ing con­nec­tion to the bor­ough.

He added that the Road March record hold­er’s sto­ry has be­come “wo­ven in­to the his­to­ry of this bor­ough and the Caribbean com­mu­ni­ty that calls it home.”

The screen­ing pro­vid­ed one of the ex­hi­bi­tion’s most strik­ing mo­ments. Three years af­ter the Brook­lyn Pub­lic Li­brary used the same façade for The Book of HOV, its ma­jor trib­ute to Brook­lyn-born hip-hop icon Jay-Z, the build­ing once again be­came a cul­tur­al can­vas, this time show­cas­ing so­ca and the sto­ry of a T&T artiste be­fore a pre­dom­i­nant­ly Caribbean au­di­ence.

Jour­ney of a So­ca King: The Ex­hi­bi­tion con­cludes at the Cen­tral Li­brary on Sep­tem­ber 12.