PostSecret: Experience power of sharing secrets, connection to mental health at Lyceum Series event

Frank Warren, author and innovative creator of the PostSecret Project, comes virtually to Augusta University to share “PostSecret and Mental Health: Sharing Secrets, Reducing Stigma, Building Community” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 9.

Warren demonstrates the power of sharing your hopes, dreams, fears and failures and how PostSecret became the catalyst for his passionate commitment to mental health advocacy. In Warren’s interactive multimedia event, “PostSecret Live,” he engages audiences with the inspiring, funny and at times heartbreaking stories behind the secrets. As he delves into how the project led to his ardent involvement in suicide awareness, Warren demonstrates that by sharing our personal struggles, we can help each other and release our burdens.

What started as a community mail art project in which people anonymously share never-before-voiced secrets has since captured our collective imagination and evolved into a worldwide phenomenon. Several New York Times bestselling books, national art exhibits and an album and theatrical production later, Warren’s PostSecret website has become the most visited ad-free blog in the world, honored with multiple Webbys for “Best Blog on the Internet.”

PostSecret has raised over $1 million for suicide prevention and earned Warren a Mental Health Advocacy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Livestream viewing will be available in the Lee Auditoria Center on the Health Sciences Campus for the first 50 students, with space for an additional 25 students in the adjacent room. 

Immediately following the PostSecret presentation, everyone is invited to “Light the Path” to Augusta University mental health and suicide prevention resources. Attendees will safely gather outside the Lee Auditoria Center and walk the luminary path to the Health Sciences Student Center. Along the way, they will gather information from Student Counseling and Psychological Services, Student Health Services and the Choose Life Project from AU Health and the Medical College of Georgia. Students will learn about the Kognito app and other tools available to them on the JagsLiveWell website.

Students, faculty, staff and community members are also invited to join virtually on WebEx. Enter your name and email address, and if you have an @augusta.edu email, please use that address. The password for the event is “postsecret.”

Finally, at the Health Sciences Student Center, a free to-go dinner will be offered to students who helped to Light the Path. Make sure to pick up your free dinner ticket at the Lee before participating in Light the Path.

PostSecret and Light the Path are presented the Lyceum Series, Student Counseling and Psychological Services, the Choose Life Project from the Medical College of Georgia, Student Health Services, the Dean of Students Office and the Undergraduate and Graduate Student Government Associations.