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Millions of people have burdening secrets that they can’t say out loud.
“Sometimes when we think we are keeping a secret, the secret is actually keeping us,” Frank Warren founder of PostSecret said.
“We all have something that we have done or had done to us,” ASG Vice President Adrienne Barlow said. “It’s a healthy way to express this.”
PostSecret might be the answer. It is a community project where participants anonymously mail in a secret which Warren posts on a blog. On April 21, CMU will host a live PostSecret event with Warren.
“PostSecret is unique,” Barlow said. “It has that get-it-off-your-chest feeling.”
Every Sunday, Warren updates the PostSecret blog with new secrets. Each secret has been written on a postcard of some sort. Some have been art that were created just for the purpose of this release, while others are just writing that has been put over the top of a tourist postcard. Warren also posts messages from anyone who has been influenced, to change their lives, by another’s secret.
“What’s cool about it is that you get other people hooked on it,” Barlow said.
According to Warren’s website, PostSecret started because of a dream he had about three postcards. The dream led him to create an art project called “reluctant oracle.” In this project, Warren created postcard art, and then left them for people to find them serendipitously. His last work for this project contained the message, “You will find your answers in the secrets of strangers.”
The next weekend PostSecret began.
According to Presidential Appointee to the Fee Allocation Committee, Con Trumbull, over 300 CMU students have sent their secrets.
“It is a good release before they build up and crack,” Trumbull said. “With the upcoming violence forums it is a good way to promote violence prevention.”
The PostSecret Live event will give students a chance to express a secret in person. The event is geared towards building a more positive community on campus.
“It will bring the campus together,” Trumbull said. “I have heard that people leave with a greater sense of community.”
Many of the postcards of secrets have been fashioned into a collage-like book. Since each one is a work of art in its own way this has become one of the most well known forms of community art.
“Community art is an expanding medium, a shared medium,” Barlow said. “It encourages people to work and share together.”
Not only is bringing PostSecret to campus a great service for the student body, but also, according to Barlow, this puts CMU up there with other universities. Before we host Frank Warren, institutions such as Denver University, University of North Carolina, and Gonzaga University will be holding his event.
“There is a lot of excitement,” Trumbull said. “To bring in someone who is well known. We can’t wait to get it started.”
ASG will be hosting PostSecret Live with founder Frank Warren On April 21, in the University Center Ballroom. For more information visit: www.PostSecretcommunity.com.
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