Okay Then

11/09/2025

We made a film!

Saturday November 15, 1:00pm US Eastern, 8:00pm South Africa. See the film with the author, have a little time of reflection, conversation, and Q&A after the film.

Details and RSVP
https://okaythen.net/zoom-premiere/

Learn more about the film, and watch short clips here:
https://okaythen.net/choosing-to-see/

The background
Early this year Hanna du Plessis, our first "featured voice," was invited to contribute a video installation to the huge and wonderful Woordfees 2025 festival in South Africa. It has been a dream of hers to engage with the dynamics of race there in her home, so this was a tremendous gift—a chance to speak about possibility to her people.

Through the summer months, Hanna wrote seven short pieces describing key moments in her own arc from “nice white girl” to someone able to hold whole loving relationship across the boundaries of historical oppression. Erica Wessels, who voiced the audiobook of Hanna’s “Bedsores and Bliss,” graciously gave her talents to these new essays. Marc Rettig stretched and immersed in illustration and video production for nearly two months. Others gave their time and talents.

And here we are. The festival is over. The film showed twice on a big screen, and for four days looped in a small room with a beach sand floor and playful seating. Now we’re looking at how best to show the film broadly.

In coming weeks we will make the film freely available. Soon after, we’ll offer an edition for leaders and groups that includes resources for hosting group reflection, dialogue, and imagination sessions—both video and for download and print.

Group Viewing on Zoom, Saturday November 15, 1:00pm US Eastern, 8:00pm South AfricaSee Details & RSVPChoosing to See:Racial Healing is Possibleby Hanna du PlessisRead by Erica WesselsA film by Marc Rettig A powerful suite of illustrated personal moments by Hanna du PlessisWhat does it take to stay i...

04/22/2025

We love seeing artist Jeffrey Dorsey's art, voice, and community vision come to life in Pittsburgh this month. And it has felt SO great to be able to exercise some of our creativity and production chops. Audio stories of each portrait subject, web site, signage, program and guest book, and a beautiful exhibition book forthcoming.

Here's the (short) story, with pics and a link to the event site.

Who do you know that could use this kind of production support and voice amplification? We'd love to do more of this kind of work.

https://okaythen.net/another-light/

12/02/2024

Holiday shoppers, take good care of your bald people (and their kids and grandkids). We think these thirteen bedtime-on-repeat-worthy tales make the gift that keeps on giving.

http://boppasbaldstories.com

11/27/2024

Announcing a remarkable event, a remarkable gathering of voices. In celebration of the release of Hanna du Plessis' potent little book, "Bedsores and Bliss," she has asked us to convene an evening of conversational catalysts.

"As things we once depended on unravel, die or disappear, when we are hurting, How do we keep going?"

In-person in Pittsburgh, or view the livestream.

Monday, December 9, 6:30pm US Eastern time.

https://okaythen.net/events/unraveling-event/

The book: http://bedsoresandbliss.com

11/13/2024

Our first book from Hanna du Plessis is now available! It's small, and it's amazing.
. .
“I’m going to grad school,” she said. “They said they’d sponsor me to go to Ireland for the writers’ intensive there.”

This is not the statement you expect from a dying woman. Hanna was diagnosed with ALS in March of 2023. A few weeks later she departed for Ireland carrying her respirator, voice amplifier, a big sack of grief mixed with determination to live wholeheartedly into her loss.

Through these stories and snapshots spanning eighteen months after diagnosis, Hanna makes the details of her experience compelling to read, and offers potent responses to the question, “How can we keep walking and find our way when the road must pass through difficulty?” . .

https://okaythen.net/books/bedsores/

or your favorite bookseller

08/29/2024

We've been talking up Boppa's Bald Stories as great bedtime reading. Good all 'round, but especially great when read across generations. Today we thought hey, why don't we just read you one of the stories?

Here you go. "Boppa and the Tiger" :-)

http://boppasbaldstories.com, or your favorite book-buying site.

08/08/2024

We are *thrilled* by the reviews so far. And Monday's launch event was a blast. Have kids? Have a bald person? This may be for you.

https://boppasbaldstories.com

Purchase Boppa's Bald Stories"Boppa," asked EmmyJean yet again, "Tell us how you got bald." And Boppa explained it again, differently and even more crazy than last time, and swore it was all true.It was lightning! It was a bear! A shark, a tornado, a man with a very small lawnmower…. When the kids...

07/31/2024

"Boppa's Bald Stories" is Now Available!

It's a holiday here at Okay Then*, as pre-release is over and we can finally say,...

No more waiting. The friends, children and grandchildren of all those dear bald people can at last have their very own collection of bald stories.

Reviews are coming in -- Hallie says, "A really adorable and charming book. The idea is simple but the feeling of reading it is like settling in with a good Roald Dahl tale. The illustrations are genuinely beautiful."

Roald Dahl! We'll take that comparison.

We like it when you buy direct at https//:boppasbaldstories.com. It's also available at bookshop.org, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and pretty much anywhere books are sold.
. .
*A holiday that includes lots of painful bald puns.
Example: "We baldly go where no one has gone before."

https//:boppasbaldstories.com

07/26/2024

SO many ways to go bald. (Boppa releases next week!)

As we look to next week's release date for Boppa's Bald Stories, there is lots of whimsy here at the Okay Then global HQ. Example: we're gathering old folk tales about going bald. I'll paste a couple below.

Meanwhile pre-orders are heating up. Do it now, and you'll receive your book the first week of August.

http://boppasbaldstories.com

(Meanwhile the pipeline of forthcoming books is filling beautifully. Stay tuned!)
. . .
The Man and His Two Wives
Aesop

In the old days, when men were allowed to have many wives, a middle-aged man had one wife that was old and one that was young; each loved him very much, and desired to see him like herself.

Now the man's hair was turning grey, which the young wife did not like, as it made him look too old for her husband. So every night she used to comb his hair and pull out the white ones. But the elder wife saw her husband growing grey with great pleasure, for she did not like to be mistaken for his mother. So every morning she used to arrange his hair and pull out as many of the black ones as she could. In consequence the man soon found himself entirely bald.
. . .
How Saint Peter Lost His Hair
Germany

Everyone knows that Saint Peter is entirely bald, except for a single lock of hair in front that falls over his forehead, but most people do not know the following story that explains how this came to be.

While he and Christ were traveling together they came to a farmhouse where the farmwife was just cooking up some large yeast pancakes in grease. According to others it was noodles.

Saint Peter entered the house to beg for some pancakes, while the Lord waited outside. The farmwife was a good-hearted woman, and she gave Peter three pancakes, fresh from the pan. But Peter was selfish, and in order to gain an advantage when the pancakes were divided up, he quickly hid one of them in his cap, then put it on his head. He pretended that he had received only two pancakes, one of which he gave to the Lord.

The pancake under his cap was still hot, and it began to burn Peter terribly on the head, but he could not do anything about it; he just had to bear the pain.

Later, when he took off his cap, he discovered that the hot pancake had burned into his head a large bald spot, which remained with him as long as he lived. Only the lock of hair that had protruded from the front of his cap was spared. Thus Saint Peter's bald head has one lock of hair in front.

SOURCE: https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/bald.html

07/13/2024

Boppa's book launches in his home town.

Montana friends, maybe we'll see you at the Fort Benton library August 5. Meet the author, Laurie Trott Rettig. Meet Boppa himself! Story readings, discounted books, very few sharks.

Here's the flyer....

07/10/2024

Have a bald person in your life? Kids? Grandkids? Our first book gets into baldness in a way you've not seen before.

"Boppa" is a granddad, and every time the kids ask him how he got bald, he answers with another ridiculous story. His wife, Laurie Trott Rettig, collected those stories and asked Hanna du Plessis to illustrate them. The result is a magical collection of thirteen beautifully silly stories for families and young readers.
http://okaythen.net/books/boppas-bald-stories/

JOIN OUR ADVANCE REVIEW TEAM
If you'd like access to a pre-release online copy of Boppa's Bald Stories, and you're game to post an honest review on social media or sites like Amazon, fill out this form. We'll follow up with instructions and a link in mid-July.
https://forms.gle/tgDSqAuPyBb741RT8

PRE-ORDER NOWfor July 31 release "Boppa," asked EmmyJean yet again, "Tell us how you got bald." And Boppa explained it again, differently and even more crazy than last time, and swore it was all true.It was lightning! It was a bear! A shark, a tornado, a man with a very small lawnmower…. When the ...

07/10/2024

Hello, world. This is our first post on Facebook, and we're thrilled to be here. Follow for updates on our publications, events, featured voices and projects.

Out of the gate...
Our first book is a children's book: Boppa's Bald Stories.
Our first featured voice is the remarkable Hanna du Plessis.

Much more to come!
- A community of reader/co-creators working with essays on grief and gratitude.

- An "adult children's book" on internalized habits of control, vs. nurturing approach to social creativity

- A chapbook of Hanna's essays from Carlow University's MadBooks press, written during her experience with ALS

- Invitations to collaborate on projects (we are, after all, a "participatory production company")