First there was pidgin, a nineteenth-century plantation worker’s spoken language that could reach across ethnic barriers. Spoken pidgin grew to be an essential part of being “local” in Hawaii. Later—much later—there was twentieth-century pidgin on the printed page. Starting from English spelling and using standard typefaces, it was hard to capture the sense, the sound, the cadence, the feel of pidgin.

Then came Jozuf Hadley, Bradajo, the first pidgin poet and artist. Thirty years ago, he found a way to capture the feel of local experience in simple and profound original poetry, and to put his words on the page in evocative and entertaining calligraphy of his own devising. This book in the artists’s own hand, and the CD with the poet speaking in his own voice, will give you the Bradajo experience.

Author: Bradajo