In the fall 2017, the Crafts Center at NC State began collecting secrets from Wolfpack students in a project they dubbed “Pack Secrets.” The Center planted seven drop points across campus for students to submit anonymous secrets, and these accumulated for over a year. On Sept. 19, they took them out and hung them up, revealing over 1,000 secrets the Pack had hidden away until then, as part of the larger initiative known as PostSecret U.
Frank Warren, the founder of the PostSecret project, came to the Stewart Theatre at NC State on Thursday, Sept. 20, to talk about his community art initiative with the students of NC State. PostSecret, a project that has been ongoing since 2005, when Warren first began posting anonymous secrets from strangers, mailed to him on postcards, on his site. Now, he gets over 1000 cards a week, each of which he personally reads. Some go on the site, some in museum exhibits and some in hardcover compilations such as “The World of PostSecret,” which was released in 2014.
Katy Walls, the Studio Technician at the Crafts Center, helped coordinate the event, and hung up many of those secrets herself. She said the turnout was unprecedented.
“I didn’t expect it to be this big,” Walls said. “Frank was telling me when he came here that the last college he went to, their entire program collected 12 cards in total. That most places he goes to he gets a hundred, maybe a couple hundred. And then, here we are with over 1000, and growing by the day, so that was really neat to me.”
The wall of secrets, officially titled PostSecret U, can seem depressing to some at first. Maggie Cummings, a fourth year studying animal science who also helped organize the exhibit, acknowledged this. She said that very reaction is one thing which makes the project so important.
“A big majority are secrets about sexual assault, suicide, self-harm or knowing someone who has had any of those happen- domestic abuse, interpersonal abuse,” Cummings said. “It’s something we learn when we come to college, is a lot of people have these feelings, and have these experiences and have their own stories… and this puts them in the open so you can go like, ‘I am not the only person struggling,’ and that’s probably the best feeling to have. Because when you look at people and with social media, it’s like, ‘everyone’s lives is perfect; I’m the only one struggling.’ But you’re not.”
For Cassidy Konzelman, a third year studying mathematics who also helped hang up many of the cards, the exhibit held a different meaning.
“PostSecret U here on NC State’s campus, it’s more of like a mental health project, almost,” Konzelman said. “Like being able to tell your secrets and let it go, and so it doesn’t hold any power over you…. It’s one thing to write your secret down and put it in a box, like that’s something you could do on your own. But to have it out in the open and see that it has no power over you, I think that really conveys the meaning of what PostSecret is.”
Walls said that PostSecret U is an especially important project to members of the Arts NC State community.
“This has been a really special project to me and a lot of the other members of the Arts NC State community,” Walls said. “In August, we lost one of our own to a suicide. So that has really kind of weighed heavy on our hearts…. There’s a lot of passion and support behind this project just because we’re all so motivated to help other people. And at the end of the day, that’s really what this is about, is helping as many people as we can touch.”
Walls said that the wall bears a message for the students of NC State which she hopes can carry them through trying times.
“The biggest, coolest thing that I’ve learned from this wall – a lot of people will look at it and just see despair, and sadness, and darkness and just a hopelessness,” Walls said. “And when that’s what they say to me, I like to say, in fact, the complete opposite. When I look at this wall, I see hope. And it has taught me that hope is a renewable resource, and that it’s found in the deepest of depths, in the darkest of dungeons and in the faces of the most demonic demons…. and that’s my sincerest hope, that people can see this wall and see just that, not just go ‘man, that’s a really freaking dark secret.’ But not only is that a dark secret, but they shared it, and they’re not alone in that secret anymore, and now maybe then they can build and grow forward.”
PostSecret U is on display at the Crafts Center until Oct. 27. They are still accepting secrets at any of the drop points across campus, which are listed on the Pack Secrets web page, and Walls has stated that she is willing to conduct impromptu tours for those interested in learning about the exhibit.
