Da Pidgin Guccis
Always on.
That’s what comes to mind when I hear the name Lee Tonouchi. Author, playwright, activist, linguist, anthologist, cultural champion, raconteur, man-who-always-shows-up are some other Tonouchi associations that come up.
To be clear, “always on” is my phrase and my label. Lee is no showboat, even if he has trained the media to refer to him as Da Pidgin Guerilla. (We’re only too glad to oblige.) The guerilla part isn’t schtick. Lee swims like a fish in the sea of Hawai‘i’s dialects and has been doing so for decades in a stubborn stealthy crusade to keep Pidgin a living language, as well as an essential and entertaining component of Hawai‘i society, if not in fact our glue.
Recently, with his new gig as Hawai‘i’s Poet Laureate, Lee has achieved every guerilla’s dream. Like Fidel lighting up a cigar in the Presidential Palace while trying out the big chair behind Fulgencio Batista’s desk, the outsider has arrived. Congratulations, Commandante Tonouchi!
As it happens, for more than a year over here at THROB we’ve been slowly puzzling out a Pidgin Package with Lee. Now called our Pidgin Pak, it grew out of reading Tonouchi’s 2009 academic paper, written in Pidgin about Pidgin and Local Hip-Hop, that he presented at a conference. Lee took on the conundrum of conflicting social dialects, or creoles, or whatever is your nom de jour, that should be friends but weren’t. In the paper he discusses and bemoans what might have been and what was lost when a new argot just takes over the old one’s cultural niche instead of enriching it.
The paper was never published, which seemed a shame, so we promised to get it up on THROB—and then we dithered. Our editorial challenge was how to find a frame or context for publishing a single academic paper from 2009. The publication of Mark Panek’s story on Hawaiian guitar’s comeback, “Steel Pulse,” opened up a channel of thought—with Lee’s paper we’d be expanding our music coverage. But the game-changer arrived in the form of a rising Pidgin star—Kaua‘i’s thomas ianucci, a three-time Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award-winner as a rapper and hip-hop artist who had also recently evolved into a serious writer of fiction and creative nonfiction.
In ianucci Tonouchi has his counterpart, a fellow soul steeped in creole, one possessed of the same revolutionary spirit. Besides being Pidgin evangelists, both men are community builders and tireless promoters of others’ work, not just their own. And there are signs that Lee’s decades of persistence are paying off, with ianucci a beneficiary. Since we started reading and hearing ianucci’s work in person and adding him to this package he has impressively marketed himself to New York literary agencies, attracting offers from a couple and eventually signing with The Fischer-Harbage Agency.
The guy makes his own momentum, which has always been a Tonouchi trademark, too. That energy and ability is what Hawai‘i will need more of in the days to come given what’s happening to publishing in general and in our country politically.
After Lee and thomas kick off the package below, separately and successively in this Pidgin Pak you’ll find Tonouchi’s fabled lost paper, “Hidden Pidgin,” then ianucci’s answering essay “On Shame, Or, Hakum No More So Much Pidgin in Hawai‘i Hip Hop?” Then comes an ianucci short story, “Hanapepe, 1924,” which places us at the aftermath of the massacre of plantation workers and labor organizers. A story we originally requested from him for our ongoing series of Hawai‘i Historic Fiction, it makes for a perfect introduction to another great local talent who’s shaking up and reshaping our literary scene and culture as a whole. —D.W.
PS The Pidgin in the paper and these stories is each author’s own. We did no copy-editing and certainly no spell-checking. Still, for any errors or perceived inaccuracies in the Pidgin Pak you may, in the now-immortal words of ianucci, “get mad at don.” That goes for the headline to this story, too. Further, we expect the duo to get together to record at least one single under Da Pidgin Guccis handle, with the stipulation that they invite me to guest one verse. Or maybe just a grunt.
LEE TONOUCHI:
History of dis essay…
I used to be one big fan of Local Hip-Hop and I thought da genre deserved more attention in da world of academia.
I wen go present my papah “Hidden Pidgin: Da Absence of Pidgin in Hawai‘i Hip-Hop” at da Association for Asian American Studies Conference on April 22, 2009 in Honolulu for one panel I wen chair called “Try Hold da Pidgin: Is Pidgin being Presshah-ed Out from Hawai‘i Local Identity?”
Aftah da AAAS conference I wen submit my papah to Bamboo Ridge, but da ting got rejected. Sad face emoji, li'dat.
Aftah da conference I had childrens and nevah have time and money for keep up anymore with all da new music that wuz coming out. So I kinda just forgot about my essay until I ran into Thomas Iannucci da oddah year. Since we wuz talking about all tings Pidgin, I told 'em about my papah and I wen show 'em to him laters. Since I no wuz following da scene no more, I wanted for know if da points I wen raise wuz generally still true or what. He wen confirm that lotta da observations I made back in 2009 wuz still da same.
Using my essay as one jumping off point, Bruddah Thomas said he wuz going write his own personal essay for explore hakum he himself no use more Pidgin in his own Hip-Hop. I looking forward to reading his final draft. Should be deep cuz he one pretty akamai guy!
Lee A. Tonouchi wuz recently appointed Hawai‘i’s State Poet Laureate for one chree-year term. His Pidgin poetry collection Significant Moments in da Life of Oriental Faddah and Son wen win da Association for Asian American Studies Book Award. His children's picture book Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos wen win one Skipping Stones Honor Award. An'den his play Three Year Swim Club wuz one Los Angeles Times Critic's Choice Selection. He recently wen go do his first play adaptation with Two Nails, One Love, based on top da novel by Alden M. Hayashi, which ran at Kumu Kahua Theatre until February 22, 2026.
thomas ianucci:
shouldahz
da firs time i had meet lee tonouchi was at one bamboo ridge event in 2023. was my firs time fo get published in hawai‘i, n only my second time getting published at all, so i was smallkine nervous. n by smallkine, i mean supah nervous! usually i pretty used to to events ladat, da kine get choke famous people n you gotta bring yo a game. n as one rappah i had perform fo crowds way mo big den dat one, but koof! sked i was.
i always wanted fo be one writer, n dis was goin be my first live reading, so you know ah. was little bit da kine. n mo wors too, every time i had turn around had one odda famous local author showing up fo read, cuz was fo da 45th anniversary edition of BR, so all da big shots had come out fo support. wing tek lum was dea, n lisa lin kanae. scott kikkawa. eric chock n darryl lum was back togedda again. mos intimidating: lois ann yamanaka, da queen herself! n plenny oddahz too. local literary royalty all in one spot.
so felt like da presha was on. lucky ting had one really sweet japanee woman dea who had talk to me even tho i nevah know nobody. i tot, “maybe as cuz me n her da only two not famous people hea!” but no. turned out fo be legendary pidgin poet ann inoshita. sheesh! was really jus me all by my lonesome.
anyway. i was standing around trying not fo look as awkward as i felt wen i seen lee walking by. most of da authors i nevah really recognize till dey was introduced, cuz i only knew dea names, not dea faces. but lee is real personable n good both live n on camera, so he had pop up from time to time on tv or social media, n i knew was him right away.
i tried fo mek eye contack wit him so i could say howzit, but he nevah even look at me, jus had march right on by. he was in da zone. (1)
“ah,” i tot. “i guess wen you big time like lee tonouchi, you no mo time fo da garuts.” but nex ting i knew he had come up n ask me if i was one rappah, n i said “yeah i am. are you one celebrated pidgin author, playwright, n poet?”
n shua enough, he was! apparently he seen me in one dockumenary i had help our mutual friend audrey wit, so he knew who i was. dat was pretty cool. n den he had ask me fo buss one freestyle fo aunty lois!
was good fun, n had really help me fo relax. everyone else dea was supah supportive too. by da end of da event, i made choke friends, n got plenny encouragement, too. as one of my favorite memories dat day, debuting as one writer in hawai‘i. n as cuz of all da amazing authors n poets who had mek me feel so welcome.
fo da mos part, as been dat way evah since. in my experience at leas, da whole local literary community ste supah welcoming. n das one relief fo me. cuz even now, sometimes i stillyet feel like i ste getting in ova my head, like i ste outta my depth, like…i dunno. some odda ocean metaphor. da point is, i really not too shua if i qualified fo be writing about pidgin. sometimes i not too shua if i even qualified fo write in pidgin! get so much people who had really put plenny years, or even decades, into fighting n advocating fo da legitimization of our maddah tongue. people like lee tonouchi, n kent sakoda, n jeff siegel, n lois ann yamanaka n eric chock n daryl lum n lee cataluna n ann inoshita n jeff higa n bradajo n sooo many oddahz dat i no mo da space fo write dem all out, cuz don wallace told me gotta keep dis essay short n i already ste ova da word count, so if i left you out no get mad at me ah, get mad at don!
nah nah. jus jokes. you get da idea.
i ste joking around plenny right now, n partially as cuz i rarely get da chance fo do dat in my own work. believe it or not, i no always like be da heavy/serious/angry braddah. i like fo be playful wen i write. n pidgin is one playful language, i tink so. local culture same same. but also we use humor fo mask plenny pain. jus like i ste using humor now fo play off my insecurities, n fo put off getting to da point, which is jus how much i admire all da authors who been writing in pidgin befo me. cuz i no like come off as too intense you know ah. desperate kine. mo bettah play it cool. but da fack is dat, wedda i get da right fo write in pidgin or not, i jus no can help it, cuz i love pidgin so much! i love fo write um n talk um n talk about um, too. i love fo advocate fo pidgin, n i love fo tink about wat it is n wat it could be, about its past n even its future, cuz i believe pidgin is da key fo undastanding local culture, fo undastanding wat it means fo be local.
wat pidgin is, local people are. wea pidgin came from, as how we came to be. n wat pidgin goin be, is wat we goin become. pidgin is its own language, one dat had come outta mixing plenny different kine languages. locals is one people, one dat had come out of mixing plenny different kine cultures. hawai‘i is da melting pot of da pacific, dey always say. but wat happens wen everyting in da pot starts fo blend n melt togeddah?
it becomes someting new.
pidgin is one good example of dat. n even tho we always ste looking backwards n tinking about our roots on da plantations, i actually tink local people is too. we mo den da sum of our parts. we not japanee chinee korean porto rican podagee filipino hawaiian etc etc, jus like pidgin isn’t either. we local, n we speak pidgin. we both ste our own tingz. so fo undastan us, fo undastan locals, we gotta undastan pidgin. n if we lose pidgin, well, we know wat happens to one culture dat no can speak its language.
das why pidgin is important. das why pidgin gotta be preserved. as why as important fo have dialogue ovah hakum no mo pidgin in hawai‘i hip hop. we should be asking hakum no mo pidgin in gen alpha n gen z, cuz plenny kids hardly speak um already. someting quintessential goin be lost if we lose pidgin, someting key to being local. i nevah use to tink ladat. but wen i was educated on its history, its nuance, its legitimacy, my mind was blown n my opinion had change! n i know da fack dat i can even have da framework fo tink of pidgin ladis, as one language worth advocating fo n not some country bumpkin kine dialeck fo be shame of, as cuz of lee n all da oddahz who came befo me, who did da work fo help legitimize pidgin in da eyez of so many.
we still get long way fo go, but we came so far already. n fo dat n so many oddah reasons, i ste so grateful. i standing on da shouldahz of giants!
or getting one piggyback ride, at least.
either way, da view ste real exciting from up hea!
Da Guccis!
(1) kent sakoda was also dea but i no remembah dat. da only reason i know is cuz da firs time i had meet unko kent in person (afta i had send him one email telling him wat a fan i was of his work n how much respeck i get fo him), he said, “eh, i knew you nevah remembah me as soon as i read yo email! we met at da 45th anniversary reading you did n had one full convasation n all! but you was all excited talking to lee tonouchi as why.” so it turns out my firs time meeting unko kent was actually my second time, n my true firs time was at dat same event. sooo shame. but on da plus side, we found out my unko jose bulatao jr. was his english teachah back in da day! so as all good now. me n unko kent is da two kauai boyz holding it down fo pidgin!
thomas ianucci says “no worry bout thomas iannucci, he doin jus fine. no be nīele.”
Banner image by Nico Ruge.
