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Title details for Boyz n the Void by G'Ra Asim - Available

Boyz n the Void

a mixtape to my brother

by G'Ra Asim
ebook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
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
How does one approach Blackness, masculinity, otherness, and the perils of young adulthood? For G’Ra Asim, punk music offers an outlet 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 zoomer teenage brother. Author, punk musician, and straight edge kid, G’Ra Asim weaves together memoir and cultural commentary, diving into the depths of everything from theory to comic strips, to poetry to pizza commercials to mapping the predicament of the Black creative intellectual.
With each chapter dedicated to a particular song and placed within the context of a fraternal bond, Asim presents his brother with a roadmap to self-actualization in the form of a Doc Martened foot to the behind and a sweaty, circle-pit-side-armed hug.
Listen to the author’s playlist while you read! Access the playlist here: https://sptfy.com/a18b

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 11, 2021

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780807059500

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780807059500
      • File size: 3092 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      Starred review from April 1, 2021
      A Black millennial shares life lessons with his younger brother through the lens of punk rock. Asim, a writer, musician, professor of nonfiction writing, and punk aficionado, feels a kinship with his younger brother Gyasi, in part because they are both "difficult," and that "natural recalcitrance is the seed of punk sensibility." The author, who has never viewed his embrace of punk as antithetical to his Blackness, addresses his 10-chapter narrative to Gyasi, an intelligent, artistic teen on the cusp of college who "predominantly lurks indoors like some Wi-Fi-empowered Boo Radley." Asim writes to Gyasi in hopes that "a robust engagement with counterculture can serve as a vital antidote to soul-sucking normalcy." The author's mixtape is "part Nick Hornsby, part Ntozake Shange: my All-Time, Top-10 Angst-Neutralizing Punk Songs Because the Rainbow Clearly Isn't Enuf, Bruh." The product of "a poor, Black, bohemian family of quixotic values" in a "hyperliterate household," Asim delivers erudite prose that will appeal to readers across generations who want a fresh lens through which to consider a range of topics, including mental wellness, childhood sexual abuse, masculinity and male feminism, sex and sexuality, racism, and respectability politics. Asim also considers the relationship between punk and Afrofuturism, another conduit for "critical examination of dreary, unquestioned norms." Whether he's discussing Black Lives Matter or the influential all-Black punk band Bad Brains, whose "lasting cultural resonance cannot be dismissed," Asim's astute social commentary, poignant storytelling, wit, and solid music criticism will appeal to punk and nonpunk readers alike. Here, the punk scene is no panacea, and Asim offers critique alongside celebration. Overall, his message to Gyasi is frank and hopeful: "I urgently want you to know that the living here can be good even if it's never easy." Part memoir, part rebel yell of a love letter to idiosyncratic young Black men trying to find their ways in the world.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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