Spring Break
A secret speaker comes to ECU
Ashley Abernathy
Issue date: 9/9/08 Section: Features
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"I wish you didn't prevent me from overdosing because living life without you now is exactly what I was trying to escape," stated another, more serious, secret on the popularly read site.
More than 3 million visitors log onto the PostSecret Web site each month.
The site grew from the idea of a man named Frank Warren, who created the project in 2004 for an art event in Washington, D.C. Warren's initial idea for the project was to allow anonymous people to send in a decorated postcard with a secret they had never revealed to anyone before.
Now, PostSecret has grown into a phenomenon that has swept the nation. Warren will be sharing his thoughts about his project in a presentation at ECU on Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. The lecture, which was planned by the ECU Student Activities Board, will be held in Hendrix Theater.
"I imagine it [Hendrix] will fill up," said Stephen Mason, vice president of the Student Activities Board at ECU.
The increasing popularity of PostSecret has made Warren a highly sought-after public speaker, allowing him to travel across the nation to deliver speeches.
"We were thrilled to get him," said Kay Christian, interim director of Student Activities and involvement.
According to a press release, Warren gives moving speeches, sharing his own secrets that have been kept out of the books as well as the story of how he became an "accidental artist." Since he launched postsecret.com in 2005, he has displayed more than 2,500 secrets that have been sent in from people across the U.S. and around the world.
"We knew he had been touring colleges a lot," Mason said. "We knew how popular it was."
Secrets range from embarrassing habits to serious, sometimes suicidal, confessions. "Some of the secrets are funny and some are serious." Mason said. "It says a lot about people in general."
Several secrets have been published in numerous New York Times best-selling PostSecret books, which Warren will be signing at the end of his lecture.
"I think the students will find what he has to say is interesting," Christian said. "I think this will appeal to everyone because of what the subject matter is."
The ECU Student Activities Board tries to plan around six lectures each school year. Warren's lecture will be the first.
Two more lectures will be held this semester: David Kaczynski, brother of the "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, on Oct. 22, and Daryl Davis, a black author and musician on Nov. 19.
The PostSecret event is free for all students, but seating is limited and available on a first-come first-serve basis.
This writer can be contacted at features@theeastcarolinian.com.
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