Frank Warren, a small-business owner in Germantown, is the founder and curator of the PostSecret Project. He has a degree from the University of California at Berkeley and started the project — which has turned into a Web site, several art exhibitions and three books (most recently “The Secret Lives of Men and Women”) — simply: He handed blank postcards to strangers in Metro stations and invited them to send the postcards back, decorated and sharing a long-held secret.
What’s the secret to the success of the PostSecret project?
The idea is pretty novel and can be interpreted in many ways. … I think some people might have misinterpreted it initially as being about pornographic secrets, or … silly secrets. But as they read through the books or visit the web site, they come to understand the soulful, thoughtful secrets that people are sharing to free themselves and to connect with others.
What’s your current total of postcards?
[Over] 75,000 secrets in less than two years. I receive about one to two hundred every day. Ninety-nine percent of the people who mail me postcards create a homemade postcard. Part of it is text that expresses their secret and part of it an artistic element: a drawing, a picture, a diagram, a photograph. They might use a parking ticket to send their secret on, or a wedding invitation or a sonogram or a napkin or a cup, and the secret might contain items taped to the card. I’ve received secrets with poker chips, AA chips, computer chips … money … cremated ashes … drugs (both legal and illegal).
You’ve said that sometimes you think this project chose you, but does it ever make you feel burdened?
Sometimes when somebody shares a secret with you, they share their burden as well. They might walk away from that transaction a little bit lighter, but you might carry a little more weight. I really don’t feel as though I’ve been burdened. I feel as though it’s a great gift and it’s brought so much meaning and purpose to my life that I’m very thankful for this project. At the same time, I’ve never had worse back problems in my life. …
I do receive a lot of postcards that have secrets that have painful details. I try and focus on the therapeutic process that person went through in facing their secret … and then releasing it to a stranger. I’ve heard time and time again from people who said that process has brought them solace or a sense of healing.
I found many of the postcards very intense.
I have heard [people] try and pace themselves. I’ve heard about that experience more at the art exhibition that we had in Washington, D.C., when we had 2,000 actual PostSecrets cards. People would take breaks. … The voices are so articulate and so easy to relate to — maybe not specifically — but understanding the power of that secret in someone’s life is one of the things that ties us together as humans. As you look at these secrets, it connects you to your own humanity as well.
