...ever heard of it? If not, your in luck because I just happen to love this ongoing project- and hopefully soon you will too!
What is it?
Post Secret is the name of a continuous community art project.
How do you participate?
People from all over are invited to create their own 'postcard.' This can be as simple as a photograph, magazine clipping, movie ticket... essentially anything that you can fit a mailing address on. The idea behind the postcard is that the sender is anonymously mailing in a secret, something that he/she has been bottling up, something that he/she has been wanting to tell someone, a part of this persons past or present that they are not proud of, or something they are incredibly proud of. There really are no rules when it comes to what you write, where you write it, or what you write it on- it is just anything and everything that crosses your mind as a message you want to put out there for the public to know, all under a safe anonymous umbrella.
Who Started this?
This miraculously popular idea started with Frank Warren.
"The concept of the project was that completely anonymous people decorate a postcard and portray a secret that they had never previously revealed. No restrictions are made on the content of the secret; only that it must be completely truthful and must never have been spoken before"
Warren felt that by revealing theses secrets to the public, the action is not only meant to be an empowering experience for the author, but in more ways than one can imagine- empowering to those different people who read the secret. Warren claims that;
"the postcards are inspirational to those who read them, have healing powers for those who write them, give hope to people who identify with a stranger's secret, and create an annonymous community of acceptance"
The project kicked off on January 1, 2005 and has had steadfast participation and involvement ever since.
The project has been so successful that there have been four books published- a compilation of impacting, surprising, or seemingly normal secrets for those who have not followed the project weekly- to have the opportunity to experience. I personally own both "A Lifetime of Secrets" and "Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives" and they are absolutely incredible. The novelty of owning a book like one of these, is that you can always come back to it, flip through the pages filled with immensely creative and uniquely decorated postcards presenting secrets, in some cases that you might never even be able to fathom.
I can say that since learning about PostSecret back in high school, I have actually participated in this project, and I have mailed in 1 secret. From my own experience, the most intriguing part of mailing in a secret... is wondering who in the world could be reading it.
I highly suggest checking out the website www.postsecret.com and checking out some of the newly posted Sunday secrets- you can always check there if your looking to read something new!
PostSecret has also expanded into having their own twitter handle @postsecret.
If you end up getting hooked like I did, keep an eye out because within the year the project should be releasing an all new PostSecret app!
Mail one here and your anonymous secret could end up in the next publication!
13345 Copper Ridge Road
Germantown, Maryland
20874
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