- Published: 24 May 2022
- ISBN: 9780807055557
- Imprint: Beacon Press
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 288
- RRP: $35.00
Boyz n the Void
a mixtape to my brother

















- Published: 24 May 2022
- ISBN: 9780807055557
- Imprint: Beacon Press
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 288
- RRP: $35.00
"Asim’s astute social commentary, poignant storytelling, wit, and solid music criticism will appeal to punk and nonpunk readers alike."—Kirkus Reviews
"G’Ra Asim’s Boyz n the Void is 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. Asim is attentive to small acts of intimacy and solidarity and vulnerability—a punk kid parting the curtain of his mushroom haircut, or learning to love the sweat and leather of a mosh pit—even as he dissects and illuminates, with searing, razor-sharp brushstrokes, the daily brutalities and hidden curriculums of structural racism. I’d gladly read anything by ’Ra the Exhorter—for his brilliance, his wit, his heart, and his electric illuminations of those forces of love and rebellion that might be able to remake our broken world."—Leslie Jamison, New York Times best-selling author of The Empathy Exams
"G’Ra Asim takes up a familiar form and brings it to new heights. His critical engagement with coming-of-age reflection adds refreshing depth, humor, and social commentary to a genre made immediately richer by his presence. Boyz n the Void is a spellbinding odyssey, and a magnificent debut for an exciting young author and thinker."—Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, cofounder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum