“Everything OK?” is a deeply personal reckoning with what it means to have been born and raised in Saxony-Anhalt, in what was formerly East Germany.

Why was I ashamed, as a child, to say where I was from? Why did the phrase, “Oh, I never would have guessed you were from East Germany,” always feel somehow wrong? And the follow-up — “Oh, I didn’t mean it like that, everything is okay” — never made it any better.

“Everything OK?” is about the anger that comes with indifference — the frustration and sense of powerlessness when faced with people who would rather insist that everything is fine than acknowledge conflict.

With just a few words, “Everything OK?” says a lot. It’s a feeling that needed to get out.