It's one of the most amazing phenomena ever to hit the Web. PostSecret is a treasure trove of 4-by-6-inch postcards created and mailed in by people from all over the world, describing — in words and art — their innermost secrets.The postcards arrive in Frank Warren's Germantown, Md., mailbox each week by the thousands. He posts about 20 of them on the PostSecret site each Sunday. To date, more than 150 million people have visited the site to view some of the 180,000 cards in his collection.
On Saturday, July 26, the Yeiser Art Center will display a wide selection of the postcards, kicking off the exhibit with a Spoken Secrets reception at 8 p.m. Members of the super-hot Paducah Writers Group, Guerrilla Poetry and BlackInk will read PostSecret-inspired works, live.
On Saturday, August 9, the Yeiser hosts a second reception, 5-7 p.m., featuring DJ Urban Kobbb, followed by local musicians performing songs written especially for the occasion, 7-9 p.m.The exhibit runs through September 20.
"This will most definitely be one of the most exciting exhibitions to come to Paducah for quite some time," says the Yeiser's Landee Bryant, who brought the show to Paducah. (It will be Landee's last exhibit before taking over the Maiden Alley Cinema director's position on Aug. 1.) "The importance of this show and its capability to change people's lives is why it is so important. Frank is to be commended for what he has done and so are the thousands of people who have trusted him with their secrets."
True Confessions
Frank Warren came up with the idea for PostSecret in 2004. He began by leaving these blank postcards between pages of bookstore books, library books and on park benches around Germantown:
The postcard's limited space means contributors must get to the point immediately using a mix of words and art. Warren was so impressed with the quality of the cards — people make them out of everything from cardboard and old photographs to wedding invitations and other personal items — that he exhibited the first batch of postcards later that year in Washington, D.C.
After that exhibit, Warren thought he was finished with the project. Except that the postcards kept coming in from every continent. So along with his Webby-award-winning blog, Warren has four books and the traveling exhibit.
The project, Warren says, has been intensely personal for him. "Getting postcards from strangers who were courageous enough to share their private secrets with me gave me the strength I needed to look inside and come to terms with parts of my life that I was hiding from," Warren told orato.com last year. "What it really came down to was an experience I had in the fourth grade...the most humiliating experience of my life."I never talked about it with anyone, and didn't even think of it as a secret — I'd almost forgotten about it until I received a postcard from one person," Warren continues. "This person's secret was very similar to mine, and it forced me to acknowledge that part of my life I'd been hiding from. I told my wife and my daughter, I wrote it on a postcard and mailed it to myself. If you really want to know the story, that postcard, along with my secret, is the introduction in my first PostSecret book."
Ain't That The Truth!
So are all the secrets that Warren receives true? Not necessarily, according to Warren's FAQ on the site.
"…I think of each postcard as a work of art," he says. "And as art, secrets can have different layers of truth. Some can be both true and false, others can become true over time depending on our choices. Sometimes a secret we keep from ourselves only becomes true after we read it on a stranger's postcard."Wanna Post Your Own Secret?
If you'd like to submit your own secret to Warren, you can do so at the Yeiser. Landee will make blank postcards and art supplies available for individuals and groups.
"I would encourage anyone who comes to view the exhibition and has a moment of clarity or inspiration to take the time to create a PostSecret postcard of your own," Landee says. "This exhibit truly is a labor of love for me as well as the Yeiser. The importance of getting it here has never faltered as we believe in the impact it will have on the community. What a great way to end my two years here. It is with sadness, yet with a great deal of pride, that I make my transition. But I would look for great things to come as the 2009 Exhibition Schedule is quite exciting."
