Boyz N The Void: A Mixtape To My Brother
Writing to his brother, G’Ra Asim reflects on building his own identity while navigating Blackness, masculinity, and young adulthood—all through wry social commentary and music/pop culture critique
For G’Ra Asim, punk music and straight edge culture allow him to express himself freely. As his younger brother, Gyasi, grapples with finding his footing in the world, G’Ra gifts him with a survival guide for tackling the sometimes treacherous cultural terrain particular to being young, Black, brainy, and weird in the form of a mixtape.
Boyz n the Void: a mixtape to my brother blends music and cultural criticism and personal essay to explore race, gender, class, and sexuality as they pertain to punk rock and straight edge culture. Using totemic punk rock songs on a mixtape to anchor each chapter, the book documents an intergenerational conversation between a Millennial in his 30s and his Generation Z teenage brother.
Praise for G’Ra Asim’s BOYZ N THE VOID
Mark Anthony Neal
Author of Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities
“There are just some voices that stop you cold, as resonances of some familiar brilliance but also of something so original, so compelling that you have no choice but to take notice. G’Ra Asim is one of those voices and his book Boyz n The Void: A Mixtape to My Brother is the literary salve we didn’t know we needed”
Leslie Jamison
New York Times bes-selling author of The Empathy Exams
“Full of dopamine hits and heartbreak. You don’t want to stop listening, even when it aches. It becomes part of you. These essays are rigorous and tender and funny all at once, charged with humor that doesn’t deflect from difficult honesty so much as it takes you deeper into the maze of truth.”
G'Ra Asim 