East Tennessean

Issue date: 2/8/10 Section: The Scene

Media Credit: Victoria Clements The PostSecret Project is a blog that publishes postcards that are sent from individuals across the country. Founder Frank Warren will come to speak at ETSU on Thursday, March 7 in the Culp Auditorium.

The PostSecret Project is an online blog where founder and curator Frank Warren publishes postcards that are sent to him from individuals across the country.

These are not just ordinary postcards, however. The postcards on the PostSecret Web site reveal the anonymous sender's deepest secrets.

In just over three years, Warren has received over 200,000 secrets, published four books, spoken at numerous universities and has showcased the postcards in an exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Md.

Warren continues to receive 100 to 200 postcards daily. Every Sunday he selects and publishes 20 or more on the PostSecret blog.

Warren now considers himself an "accidental artist" because he has no background or training in the arts.

"I think we all have secrets and I like to imagine us keeping them in boxes," says Warren in a video on www.postsecretcommunity.com. "I think every day each one of us has that choice to take that box and bury it deep inside of us and forget it like a coffin or to find it and bring it out into the light, open it and share our secrets like gifts."

Many students at ETSU are devoted weekly readers of the blog. Matt Brewer, a senior English major, says, "I enjoy the blog because I think there is something universal about people posting their secrets. You realize that you are not alone in whatever you are dealing with."

"I think PostSecret is a really unique way for students to tell people things they really want to when they may not have the courage," says Rachel Bates, an ETSU sophomore.

Other students, like junior Katie Vines, had never heard of The PostSecret Project. "I had no clue that it existed, but I love the concept," says Vines.

On Thursday, March 4, at 7 p.m. in the D.P. Culp University Center Auditorium, ETSU will be hosting an event with Frank Warren of The PostSecret Project.

Tickets are not required but seating is limited with priority given to students, faculty and staff with a valid ETSU ID.

At the event Warren will show some of his favorite postcards, speak about the impact of secrets, and allow attendees to reveal secrets of their own.

A limited number of PostSecret books will be sold in the ETSU Bookstore before, during and after the event. Warren will have a book signing following the lecture.

For more information about PostSecret, go to www.PostSecret.blogspot.com. For more information about the event call 439-6828.

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