Post Secret Founder Visits Anchorage
Four years ago Frank Warren invited strangers from Washington, D.C. to send him their secrets. He gave out postcards asking people to share “a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession, or childhood humiliation.” The only rule was that the secret had to be true and could not have been shared with anyone before. Five weeks into the project, Warren stopped handing out postcards, but they kept coming. People started sending in their own secrets on postcards, coloring book pages, comic strips, coffee sleeves, and even fruit. After two months, what had started out as “one crazy idea” of an art project turned into thousands of postcards, four books, and a blog.
Thursday night, Warren spoke to a full house at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium on the UAA campus to share his story as the mastermind of Post Secret.
“There are two kinds of secrets. The ones we keep from ourselves and the ones we keep from other people,” said Warren. And he plans to share them, at least those that have not made it into one of the four post secret books. Warren read secrets ranging from religious “I still believe in God but I’ve lost my religion” to moving “What you did to me when I was 16 was wrong. I never felt so alone in my life. I never felt so much pain. Today I am strong because of you. Thank you” to funny “I’ve always wanted to rob a bank.” But the secrets did not end there.
The audience was invited to head to microphones set up on the sides of the theatre to tell their own secret. And many did. The stories ranged from suicidal family members to tanning beds to cheating. Why does Warren think people are willing to share their deepest, darkest secrets with a total stranger? It is like an “open conversation… By sharing secrets…that can save lives,” said Warren, who works for the National Hopeline Network’s suicide hotline. The director of the All-American Rejects offered to pay $1,000 for the use of the postcards in the Dirty Little Secret music video. Warren said no, but would comply if $2,000 was given to the Hopeline. The director complied.
Regina Dietrich
Matt Akins
Nicole Miller
Sydney-Jane Armstrong
Sarah Bryant
Authors' Anonymous
I was there, and it was the single most glorious event to take place in and around the UAA campus. This is by no means any sort of exaggeration, for indeed, the entire 2.5 hours I spent in FRANK WARREN’S presence were golden. That man is made out of pure awesome. I love him. And postsecret, of course.