One of Guam’s favorite traditions is “Kantan Chamorro,” a playful tradition of improvised poetry and silly, taunting song. A Kantan Chamorro session might start with one singer choosing a familiar four-line chant and using it to tease another member of the group, who then pick up the musical challenge and tease back. This interplay can last for hours. The poetic interplay of Kantan Chamorrita is part of a widespread global tradition of jousting through poetry and song, which appears in the Caribbean as an “extempo war,” in Lebanon as “zajal,” in Greenland as a “drum dance” and in the U.S. as a rap battle.
We are revising the AllAroundThisWorld.com site — the information you’re seeking may still be here, but a lot of links are broken and details may be out of date. We are currently using a new (better!) site — ExploreEverywhere.com — to tell you all about our class offerings, our “pen pal” program and how to become one of our teachers, and will eventually be moving all the goodies from here over to there. So, GO TO THE NEW SITE!
