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Students are anxiously awaiting Frank Warren as he prepares to take PostSecret Live! to the stage on Thursday, March 28, at the Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) Fine Arts Auditorium. Warren, known for his ongoing community art project PostSecret, has collected secrets for over a decade after asking strangers to mail in their secrets anonymously on homemade postcards. PostSecret Live! allows the audience to witness the beauty of the postcards and the shocking and touching secrets they hold.
Frank Warren has been called “America’s most trusted stranger” and his project has raised over $1,000,000 for suicide prevention. Warren’s work also earned a special award from the National Mental Health Association and the Lifetime Achievement award from HopeLine for suicide prevention awareness. Frank Warren’s PostSecret Live! event is an immersive multimedia experience that reveals the humor, heartbreak, and humanity of our hidden stories.
“It’s a very different experience” Warren explained, “when you’re sitting as a part of a community reacting and hearing the other folks reacting to the secrets. I’ll be inviting audience members to talk about a secret or a story they have not told anyone before. That’s the most cathartic, emotional, and memorable part of the night.”
The event creates an open and safe forum for students to express secrets, hopes, fears, or desires, and the program sparks the conversation around student experiences that they might not always feel comfortable discussing.
The show is hosted by NEO’s Behavioral Sciences Club and will begin at 7:30 p.m. Doors will open at 6:45 p.m. Tickets are required, but the event is free to students and faculty on behalf of NEO with promo code “education.” Students and faculty from other schools can join at a discounted rate of $5 per ticket with promo code “local.” General admission is $10 per ticket. Tickets can be reserved or purchased at https://neopostsecret.eventbrite.com and Warren will host a book signing after the event.
Leading up the performance, NEO will host a secret collection drive. Postcards can be picked up and dropped off on campus in the Commons Hall foyer, Library-Administration campus post office, and the Student Union lobby, or off-campus at the Miami Public Library. An art installment will display many of the secrets submitted in the Charles Banks Wilson gallery at Kah-Ne Hall.
PostSecret Live! will take place during NEO Centennial Week, which will include special community events throughout the week. NEO Centennial Week will kick off on Monday, March 25, with the Centennial “Human 100” aerial photo and party of the lawn, as well as the Tenth Annual Top Ten Freshman Ceremony. On Wednesday, March 27, NEO will host motivational speaker Todd Frazier, and on Friday, March 29, NEO will celebrate the Tenth Annual Founders’ Day celebration on the campus lawn.
Media is welcome to attend PostSecret Live!, pending approval. To register with your media credentials, please contact neutralgroundhq@gmail.com. For more information on PostSecret Live! or NEO Centennial events, contact Jordan Adams at jordan.m.adams@neo.edu.
