Spring Break
Warren Spills His 'Secret'
Kim Primicerio
Issue date: 3/5/08 Section: Focus
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"I stole Christian music."
"You called me an idiot, so I sent your bags to the wrong destination. Oops! I guess you're right."
These were just some of the PostSecrets shared by secret collector, Frank Warren Tuesday night at the Student Union Theatre.
Warren shared the secrets of others that inspired many UConn students to get up and tell their secrets to a crowded audience.
Warren is the sole founder of the PostSecret phenomenon that started up three years ago in Washington, when he wanted to create a type of art exhibit displaying peoples' secrets. He started handing out self addressed postcards to random people on the streets asking them to write down their secrets and then mail them to him anonymously. Warren's art project turned into an international event. After his art exhibit closed he continued to get secrets from strangers all over the world.
Warren explained to his audience how PostSecrets began, how he started up the blog, and how it soon had a world wide impact.
The band The All-American Rejects wanted to pay Warren $1000 and have some of his post cards appear in their music video for the song "Dirt Little Secret," but Warren asked them to donate $2,000 to 1-800-Suicide, and he then would allow them to use the postcards.
"We all keep secrets, each one of us buries them in a box inside of us," said Warren. "We should take the box out and share it, like a gift."
Warren carries some of the postcards he receives in his pockets so he can learn from them, and treat others with kindness.
The postcards have raised suicide awareness and saved lives.
"He's amazing," said 8th- semester psychology major Kate Lennard. "It makes people want to do good projects. It's proof that people can do it."
Warren receives about 1,000 postcards a week and every Sunday posts 20 of them on his Web site. A lot of the secrets deal with body image, self harm and suicide, which Warren believes is America's secret.
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