Musalaya’s Gift
A youth fantasy novel by
Conrad J. Benedicto
Cover Design by Nikila Badua
“Benedicto yolks rich Philippine folklore with a heritage of anti-colonial resistance in a way that is rare to find in Filipinx American literature.”
Under the shade of an old banyan tree, Alad Dumagid has finally mastered the last note of the last song his grandmother will ever teach him. Now the corceré lords want him dead. The gifted kulintang player must flee to the mountains where he will reawaken an old power with his music or die, alongside the last free people of Agmana.
MUSALAYA’S GIFT GRAPHIC COMPANION BOOK
THE WARRIORS OF DAGAD PASS BY BUMBAKAL SAKSI
Written by Conrad J. Benedicto
Illustrated and designed by Rafael Salazar
MEET THE ILLUSTRATOR
Raf Salazar is a Bay Area artist whose work is inspired by his love of comics and animation. By day Raf focuses his talents as a freelance Digital Illustrator and Designer. By night he is perched on rooftops as the City’s ever-vigilant ally of justice... in his dreams.
He has joined up with like-minded individuals to form I.H. Studios, a company that not only puts their own stories out there, but also showcases the work of other independent artists and writers from around the globe.
When not working he spends his time researching new ideas by playing video games, getting lost in comic wiki pages, and watching cartoons.
YOUTH BOOK REVIEWS
Kali, 10
“I feel very nostalgic after reading Musalaya's Gift because it reminds me of the book that got me reading so many books and it mixed Greek mythology with the story and in Musalaya's Gift, Filipino mythology is mixed into the story. For me, the first 3 words that come to mind after reading the book would probably be nostalgia, culture and mythology. My favorite character is Lualhati because she is sassy and always breaks rules that need to be broken. I love how she breaks into and vandalizes the mage's house because (1) the mage doesn't deserve his rank that he was automatically given when installed into the village and (2) the mage is just a coward.”
Miguel, 10
“I enjoyed Musalaya’s Gift because it had a good story arc. I also liked the fact that kulintang music was key to the story. I enjoyed that there wasn’t a huge battle between the “main bad guy” and the main character. Not that it would have really made sense the way the story was going, with Alad not having super good fighting skills. One last thing that I appreciated was the occasional stories and songs at the start of chapters or in the middle of them.”
Kadean, 11
“My favorite character is Alad because of the songs he plays and the general character. My favorite scene in the book, well I'm not going to give away too much, is when Alad closes off the vein. Alad uses his music to block off the mage's vein, which is basically called the God's Vein, taking away the mage's power source.”
IN CONVERSATION WITH CONRAD J. BENEDICTO
A conversation between KULARTS Executive and Artistic Director, Alleluia Panis, and Musalaya’s Gift Author, Conrad J. Benedicto, discussing the origins of his book, hearing kulintang music for the first time and studying under Danongan ‘Danny’ Kalanduyan, inspirations from Philippine mythology and folk tales, monsters, supernatural occurrences, and his own personal experience with a supposed aswang.
ADVANCE PRAISE
“‘Musalaya's Gift’ may fall under the genre of fantasy novel but it's more than this. I would file this under ‘indigenous futurism’ because it returns the reader to the Filipino indigenous mythic world that is being reclaimed in this novel by Conrad Benedicto. The sound of the Kulintang gongs in the hands of a young warrior, Alad, and in the context of a communal ceremony, becomes the Medicine that exorcises the evil that has descended upon the Lukat and restores the people to their Wholeness.”
— Leny Mendoza Strobel, PhD, Professor Emeritus in American Multicultural Studies at Sonoma State University, author, and founding member of the Center for Babaylan Studies
“Conrad Benedicto’s debut novel takes us on a whirlwind of an adventure featuring tall tales, fantastic creatures, and everyday characters who range from the horrifying to the heroic—winged beasts that separate at the waist, giants made of stone and wood, and common-folk family members who reveal themselves as deft warriors. At the heart of it all is a young musician who has to reckon with his personal talents and place in the tradition. Will he rise to meet the challenge? Benedicto yolks rich Philippine folklore with a heritage of anti-colonial resistance in a way that is rare to find in Filipinx American literature.”
— Theodore S. Gonzalves, PhD, Author of The Day the Dancers Stayed: Performing in the Filipino/American Diaspora
”Alad would rather be climbing a tree or sailing. Better yet—playing the kulintang! He does not need to know the history of how the Perdite from the land of Ariel civilized his people, the Lukat. Alad already knows this because his teacher—the pink face mage Bruscoro—belittles him and treats his people as inferiors. To escape from this punitive school environment, Alad dreams of being a legendary kulintang musician, for whom no rhythmic beat is beyond reach! To be legendary, however, is simply not about fame or skill. To be legendary is to be like Musalaya, whose musical prowess defied space and time. But the question is: Does Alad have Musalaya's gift?
Musalaya's Gift is a fantasy novel of epic proportions, beginning with a school confrontation and quickly moves to a world-changing battle at the border of earth and sky. To stop territorial conquest, the younger Lukat generation--Alad, Bembol, Lualhati, and Rheya, and their elders--Bai Tadhana, Nanang Lina, Dianale, and Bagani, engage in the fight of their lives. Could Alad's music win a battle and stop a war?
From a school boy's struggle to refuse the conqueror's version of himself to a people's uprising against a foreign subjugator, Musalaya's Gift draws us into a story in a land that may be unknown to some but home to others. With a dazzling soundscape that includes kamamatuan, kangungudan, tidtu, tagunggo, and duyog, this gripping tale introduces us to a set of new heroes whose battle for their freedom we cannot but be a part of.”
— Lucy San Pablo Burns, Author of Puro Arte: Filipinos On the Stages of the Empire
Enter the World of Musalaya’s Gift
An archipelagic land of adventure, Agmana is home to the Lukat, common-folk who are inherently warriors, whose lives are in constant threat from their colonizers.
At the heart of the story is the young Lukat musician Alad, who, along with his friends and his people, encounter fantastic creatures and evil forces in their fight for their lives, territory, and heritage.
In Alad’s quest for Musalaya’s Gift and the fulfillment of his dream of becoming a legendary kulintang musician lies the key to winning a battle and attaining freedom and peace in Agmana.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Conrad J. Benedicto is a teacher, author, and kulintang musician who studied with Master Danongan Kalanduyan from 1997 to 2016. He was Master Kalanduyan’s apprentice within the Alliance for California Traditional Arts’ Apprenticeship Program in 2007 and again in 2013. He teaches social studies, environmental education, and kulintang music at Balboa High School in San Francisco. In 2018, Conrad received an individual artist grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission to compose original kulintang music for his project called, “Kulintang Dialect.” Musalaya’s Gift is his first fantasy novel.
