If I could live in the year 2023 forever, I would. Perpetual visits through memories, feasting on what I loved, shining its state, and experiencing life ritualistically.

Since our son, Link Comet Bae, was born last year, I find myself swirling or maybe obsessing over one question - How do I make space to revisit rituals and create memories?

I ask this question as both an attempt to bring order and meaning to the day-to-day while also being ambitious about family. Ambitious in the sense that after decades of life, I understand it’s the seconds that count. Where simply being present yields crops full of memories, family rituals make us good at processing and creating memories.

This question, like the opening to this year’s annual letter, was written and written many times leading up to publication. I knew what I wanted to write about but not how I wanted to write about them - the words, feelings, names, births, deaths, anniversaries, rituals, and memories. And here I am. Still writing.

The time now is 10:37 pm, and I’m standing in our studio in Mérida, Mexico. My wife and our firstborn are upstairs sound asleep. We developed a bedtime ritual consisting of feeding, changing clothes, zipping into a sleep sack, passing hugs, and finally reciting the BAE pledge.

Wondering, Wander

Where, Here

When, Now

Loving Ambitiously

Before Anyone Else.

These rituals consume me now. They define what kind of father I will be and what memories our family will create. Looking around, I see late patriarchs, complicated and compassionate women and men, and the mirror of life. I am. We are.

We are our memories. We revisit them through rituals. Both a question and a swirling answer.

In this year’s recap, we’ll show you how we attempt to live our lives not as checkpoints but as forever canvases - capturing the moments and memories through communal, familial, and personal rituals.

On January 9th, Kennedy and I filed to change our names to Kennedy and Lawson Bae, something we discussed in last year’s letter, Before Anyone Else.

https://lwsnbaker.mirror.xyz/auw3DLVZut3GNi6_X-_W1Nb07YoRwlMKkrbJdTIEMNk

Having returned from a reassurance trip to Mexico only days prior, the paperwork and government hoops we jumped through were more straightforward than the decision itself. I’m not sure if we’ve said this publicly before, but we decided to change our names to BAE years ago. It wasn’t until we knew we were pregnant that we made the leap.

Weeks later, we stood in front of family and friends, talking about what it’s like to name a child and revealing a logo with the initials for our firstborn. We were at the Baeby Review, our take on a baby shower, where we asked friends to review us a bit like a product review meets a short story teaching a lesson in parenting.

https://lwsnbaker.mirror.xyz/iFaGhE66cqse6nFYzHKVVEwpVF8RDdOv-E-TfLlapfo

In February, our Pomeranian, Coco, passed at 16.5 years old and two days shy of the 10th anniversary of my late wife passing away. In One Decade, I mused grief like progress is not linear.

“It’s more like a loop attempting to spin upward. Each loop passes by a few new things and a few familiar spots - revisiting ideas and memories.”

https://lwsnbaker.mirror.xyz/sOoDqAn7zJVP42kYdug854HSCl4DTXHORkct5pi7tpM

A trip to my cousin’s wedding in Atlanta allowed me to revisit decades of Spiotta family events. The wedding ritual opened a portal of memories of dancing with my mom at weddings past and the laughter we enjoyed in my late grandparent’s home.

Days later, I was looking at the dark sky in Death Valley, attempting to capture the moment before fatherhood in self-portraits and on paper.

“Link, I wrote your name on this page probably months before these words - like a debt waiting to be paid or better like a placeholder for my future self and for you in the future…”

Before the letter was written, the page contained only his first name - just waiting. I spent an afternoon in Ubehebe Crater paying the debt with my words.

March brought us the visits of Kennedy’s best girlfriends - each a witness to special moments before the birth. Kennedy somehow found time to surprise me with an early birthday celebration. The due date, April 14th, was only 7 days before my birthday on April 21st.

On March 30th, I sold my company, RARA, to Mask Network. This was a well-timed and proud moment for me to give the team and investors a soft landing back on earth.

Two weeks later, I became a father, Kennedy a mother, and together parents.

“Link Comet ☄ Bae was born at 8:24 pm, after a long and immersive labor. Sometimes great things need a little extra help to make their debut, and we are grateful for it. At 7 lbs 6 oz, and 20.25 inches, Link is exactly as big and strong as we knew.”

Memories. So many memories. This part was new. Sleeping in the hospital twin bed with Kennedy while Link slept beside us was magical. He came out crying, but as I walked over to him and we locked eyes in a moment of calm - nothing will ever be the same.

“I love you like the center of the universe. I love you so much. I am you, and you are me. We are we. Baeby. ;),” a poem from one of my paintings.

The oldest siblings visited first as rising leaders in the tribe, bearing gifts like spiritual rights. Kennedy’s sister gave the muscle memory power we needed, and my brother followed. While my parent's visit was cut short, the emotions of their arrival were long.

May ended with flights to Chicago to see long-time friends, like a pilgrimage to drink one final sip of familial wisdom. June brought Kennedy’s youngest older sister up from Florida, then smoke down from Canadian fires. The smoke blew the ideal moment for Kennedy and Link to fly to Louisiana to see her mom and second oldest sister.

Meanwhile, back in New York, our Mexican residency visas were approved.

We packed our bags, curated our street finds, and started saying our goodbyes and come visits, too.

Weeks later, we were in Memphis to see my family while our belongings rode further south to the Yucatán Peninsula.

Two and a half months after being born, Link and our family landed in Mexico, a place we now consider home base for our family’s lives and ambitions.

In August, we spent time in the mountains under the trees in Idyllwild, CA for FWB Fest.

“Friends with babies - that’s the energy I’m here for,” said Trevor McFedries, co-founder of FWB, as Kennedy nursed Link on a picnic table.

We celebrated Kennedy’s birthday with a visit to a favorite Yucatecan restaurant, Nectar, and a trip to Kabah, one of many stunning Mayan archeological sites that often go overlooked in the shadow of Chichén Itzá.

We saw many changes in September as Kennedy returned to work and Link met his nanny and best friend, Gali (short for Galilea). To say Gali has been instrumental to our family’s rituals would be an understatement. From the Mayan legends shared while we drive through town to Sunday game night at her abuelita’s, Gali is as much of our family as we are a part of hers.

Link ate a fresh croissant every morning in Paris while Kennedy and I discussed improving his sleep schedule. The bedtime ritual was in full effect at this point, but we knew the “shut down sequence” was more than steps and patterns.

Every second of our lives is unique, but our brain patterns match their way through it like a coping mechanism akin to blinders on a horse. The risk of adulthood is letting these patterns blind us to the beautiful chaos that is our every day. As a newborn, Link is more present than any of us may ever be again, and the reality is that’s a crazy default setting.

Deep groves may hold knowledge, but they have the experience. I read in The Socrates Express that Henry David Thoreau spent much of his time looking at the world upside down to ensure he saw a place.

I think of this idea as a ritualistic prompt.

To create new memories, include elements of spontaneity. To be spontaneous, become ritualistic. Design your life with checkpoints and patterns to harden memories and create new and ancient experiences. Then, whenever you can, spread the word. Invite others into others into your rituals. Share the knowledge. Give the experience. Create memories.

While we missed much of the celebrations for Hanal Pixán, the Mayan equivalent of the Day of the Dead, we were lucky enough to eat “píib.” While the word technically refers to underground earth ovens, píib, like slow-cooked pork referred to as “barbecue” in the south of the USA, refers to giant tamales that are only cooked a few days of the year. Gali’s family, like many others, serve fresh píibs to their deceased loved ones an hour before the living eat. While the smell of smoked and almost caramelized tamales fills the home, the family sits silently while the spirits eat.

Looking at many communal rituals, it’s clear that the sense of smell and taste reinforces memories while giving purpose to rituals. While it’s said that 1/3 of the brain is dedicated to vision, vision is generally paired with at least one additional sense: touch, taste, smell, or hearing. We thought deeply about this when designing our virtual wedding in 2020. We knew the event was at risk of not being memorable on a computer screen, so we included guests’ hands with art and, for those who cooked breakfast and a wedding cake with us, their sense of smell and taste.

This knowledge inspired us to serve píib at our Intentions Ceremony. The ceremony was our take on a housewarming party. Upon arriving, we asked the guest to write two intentions: what is one thing you’d like to leave behind and one thing you’d like to take when you leave. As we burned copal, Kennedy set our intentions for living areas while I set our intentions for our bedrooms. Everyone spoke about their intentions for what they wanted to take with them as we ate píib. For the closing, we burned the unread intentions of what everyone wanted to leave behind.

Sipping tea while getting my haircut in Istanbul in November, I think back to my first haircut after moving away from my hometown. While I was adventurous with my haircuts growing up, I had the same family friend stylist for my living memories. Fifteen years since then, I’ve got haircuts everywhere, from market stalls outside Cusco, Peru to an alley in Kyoto, Japan. I try not to save up haircuts, but I welcome a clean-up in new lands. Google the local terminology, screenshot some ideas, and tell them, “You’re the artist. Do your thing.” Simple ritual, deep memories, and some interesting cuts.

The remainder of my time in Istanbul deserves another post, but as my taxi driver told me over Google Translate, “Istanbul is a great civilization,” and said I must return when my son is old enough to understand. It’s clear that Istanbul - like the Sacred Valley in Peru and the Yucatán - has a culture that spans thousands of years and clear scenius.

Returning home, we created the set and setting for Kennedy’s favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, and the ritual of feeding others in our home. The timing was perfect in Link’s eyes and mouth as he got his first four teeth simultaneously.

December brought all of the holiday preparation and travel we have grown to expect. We travel to my hometown, Memphis, in early December for my mom’s birthday and celebrate Christmas early with family. Returning home, we sprinted to finish the three-month design and build process of Link’s bed. As tradition dictates, Mr. & Mrs. Clause stayed up late on Christmas Eve for the final assembly.

Christmas evening, our friend joined us for dinner and the re-opening of our wedding water ceremony. I worked with Cloudship Creative, an artist friend, to create an altar to capture the importance of the water for Kennedy’s Christmas present. As Kennedy transferred the water from its travel container to a Joshua Tree-adorned vessel, she spoke about how she was gifted the seed water of over 800 lakes from the Center of Sacred Studies in Guerneville, California. Combining the seed with cenote water from our friend, we began the three-part ceremony, telling the stories of what had happened since we were married in 2020. Next, I returned some water to the earth while talking about those who had passed since our last ceremony. Finally, we parted with a new seed as a gift to our friend so he could carry the ritual to his new home.

Heading into the final week of the year, friends from San Francisco became our first friends to visit. Newly married, they offered Mountain Lake in San Francisco to the altar, then returned some to the soil in honor of a recently passed friend. As the ritual dictates, we also gave them a seed for their home together.

These are our rituals. These are our memories. Experienced.

“BAE” pronounced bā is generally thought of as slang for someone you love or, better yet, an Internet meme for anything loved. So popular, its usage knows no bounds functioning as a noun, pronoun, and even a verb.

For us, it's grown from a nickname L used for Kennedy to eventually a name our friends gave both of us - The BAEs. It is so prolific, that it’s used from group chat names and our own cryptocurrency to our family logo.

The irony and the weight of our usage are not lost on us. We’ve spent many dinners contemplating what BAE means and why it matters. Today, the concept of BAE drives many of our major life decisions.

Speaking of decisions, this year we took the plunge, and are now expecting our first child - yes, a “baeby”. As we prepare for parenthood, we define the framework BAE as a lesson for how we want to live with each other, our children, and ourselves.

So here it is - what it means to be BAE.

Wondering, Wander Where, Here When, Now Loving ambitiously Before anyone else.

A scientist and a founder walk into a bar. It becomes a playground.

Kennedy and I live in a state of curiosity - the forever wonder. This creates a natural stream of topics to discuss, debate, and iterate upon. From trying out a new painting technique to how to lead our respective teams through the jungle of innovation, we rely on our expertise but frequently wonder aloud on our morning walks through Prospect Park and over Kennedy’s otherworldly dinners at home.

Speaking of home, we spent much of the past few years wandering the globe as Covid propelled us into remote work - something we wrote about in our 2020 letter. TBH - each location felt more like a home than something remote. Within just a few days we have stories of “remember when we lived in…” Maybe this is uniquely us, or maybe home truly moves to where the BAE’s are. Or, maybe there is something more primal - humans have a longer history of being nomadic than we have in cities. Not to mention - being on foot improves one's ability to wonder (See Plato and a long list of other philosophers).

Settling into a brownstone in Bed-Stuy (do or die) Brooklyn last fall, we spent most of the year exploring the boroughs of New York. While traveled a lot this year - Bahamas, New Orleans (Mardi Gras), Little Rock (2x), San Francisco (2x), Houston, San Diego, Paris (FR), Chicago, Nashville (2x), Sewanee, Memphis (2x), Mexico City, Valladolid (MX), Bacalar (MX), and - as I type this - Mérida (MX)) - we felt strangely stationary. Coco, our Pomeranian, stayed back on many of these trips having recently cracked Sweet 16. However, the stationary feeling is more of a function of our intentions - exploring New York as a home - than our reality.

By the Summer of 2022, the New Analogs were born. More than an event or a group, the New Analogs is a way of living without Internet-connected devices by relying on your senses and being present. No, the device can’t be powered down. Leave it at home. The path is broken on foot and by subway maps, fed through barista brunch recommendations, and oiled in underground establishments found by the very nature of being more present with our surroundings. The smell of grilled food and the people standing outside will tell you more than the number of stars on Google. Create more beautiful memories, too.

Before we met, Kennedy got two grounding tattoos - on the left foot, “Where | Here” and, on the right foot, “When | Now”. Around the same time as the tattoos, I was traveling Peru “::finding cynthia::”. Naturally, these tattoos and L’s journey led to more than permanent ink. Each asks and answers - a way of living.

Looking at Where, Here - L hears a lot of searching for acceptance, familiar, maybe even home and definitely the present. For Kennedy, it’s similar, though she says more than ‘searching’ it’s ‘finding’.

Exiting lockdown, it felt natural to ironically lockdown a place to live - an end to nomadic life. A year and a half later and we openly discuss what feels more like a mistake in a way of thinking more than a mistake in a particular location choice. The BAEs are everywhere and nowhere all at once. Our Where is always Here.

Looking at this reality of self, late this year we reworked our 2020 framework for what makes the perfect place to live. Presenting a baeby to the world makes this question ever eligible. Like a first step, we plan the next step - a move in the next year. But, we’ll save more on that update for next time.

“Slow down, slow downThe fire’s burning againSlow down, slow downWe’ll make it back my friend.”~ Paul Cuathen “Slow Down” on Room 41

Being present is a lot of what it takes to be BAE. Not tomorrow. Not after one more thing. The meeting does not take priority. When, now. Losing his wife almost a decade ago, L can confidently state that being present in the now was the best gift she gave him.

As the years pass, the speed of loss seems to accelerate - Granger McDaniel (2011), Cynthia (2013), Nana (2013), Wei Chen (2018), L’s Grandmom Dorthy Spiotta (2020), Carolyn (2021), L’s Grandad Gene Spiotta Sr. (2021), Brent Renau (2022), and L’s Memaw Anne Baker (2022) - and a foreign feeling now feels practiced though no less profound. Practice in the ever-present reality that the only when is now.

This year the opportunity allowed L to pay tribute to a friend, Brent Renaud, the first journalist lost in the war in Ukraine. Then, a few months later L gave a eulogy for his Memaw (Facebook Live, starts at the 42:00 mark). Only a few minutes from the farm L grew up on and inside a small Baptist he knew inside and out, L spent his time wondering aloud where home and Memaw are. The answer and ending - “Memaw is home. Memaw is in our memories.”

Before closing out what it means to be BAE, we wrote simply “loving ambitiously.” Not just each other - but everyone. Friends, family, and even strangers. The ultimate expression of the verb, BAE.

Something inherent in the statement is the idea that there is no comfort zone for love. Like a wondering scientist and a wandering explorer, you must love uncharted territory to be ambitious about it. It’s not simply everyone is a friend, it’s the idea that you can find a way to love the collective we and the individuals of me’s. And while this is rewarding most of the time, no ideal fits neatly in reality; it’s bloody on the frontier. To love you must expose. And, not everyone loves the me.

This pursuit, however, helps refine - who truly is before anyone else.

BAE or “before anyone else” is fundamentally inclusive. While we think of ourselves as the BAEs, anyone who can be bae. Bae is the choice of love over fear. The choice of recognizing love as it’s woven into life. Recognizing tradeoffs instead of denying consequence. Seeing the world through layers of “and'' instead of divisions of “or”. Bae is the conscious conflation of what it means to live and to love.

Formerly known as Faith Kennedy McDaniel, Kennedy is changing her name to “Kennedy McDaniel Bae.” And, formerly known as Lawson Reid Baker, Lawson is changing their name to “Lawson Reid Bae” and, if you’re bae, just call me “L”.

Thanks for reading. For a peek into the rest of our year, here are some highlights from 2022:

• Building the Innovation Engine for Biology, Lowering the barriers of bio-innovation + why I joined Opentrons, Dr. F. Kennedy McDaniel, May 11, 2022.

  https://biooptimist.substack.com/p/building-the-innovation-engine-for

• RARA, the Social Curation Protocol, Loud Paper, March 31, 2022.

  https://rara.mirror.xyz/czut-1X7ubQcAwt3PnNPQHJ3DHn2TiQJvm4nxR8AwpQ

• The Actual* Web3 Curation Landscape, March 2, 2022.

  https://lwsnbaker.mirror.xyz/ftt7ojZG2q9txxCz1IRDEoSQGQ2CyY53gCJtsJ6uyA4

• Paper can be torn apart. Ideas cannot., a Tribute to Brent Renaud, March 15, 2022.

  https://lwsnbaker.mirror.xyz/fziXJybuurs65qzza3FnqFBHqb_qnHrFc1wzZ7VDR5U

• Like a skipping stone, Poem written at Brent Renaud’s funeral, March 26, 2022.

• Eulogy for Anne “Memaw” Bessie Baker, Facebook Live, Starting at 42:00, October 29, 2022.

• L’s Top Songs of 2022, Spotify. L apparently listened to 101 different genres on Spotify this year. Listen to his 2022 Top Songs list to get an idea of some of this years sounds.

• Speaking of sounds, 🔊 Things to take dancing, L’s Music NFT gallery, On-Going.

  https://gallery.so/lwsnbaker/2DDrWYFOEdxRwqsUM8hTcfbChvV

• The Baeby Announcement, Instagram Post, December 28, 2022.

For the Baeby Review, we asked guests and those who could not attend, to share stories about Kennedy and me as babies and beyond. Think: Online product reviews meets a short story that teaches a lesson in parenting.

For those of you who attended Kennedy’s surprise 30th Birthday in San Francisco, you are already accustomed to this concept - having written satirical reviews for K’s birthday gift that year, kennedymcdaniel.com. This time, however, I did not pre-review the stories so it was a bit of a wild card. Needless to say the bet paid multiples with stories of cars and tractors believed to be stolen (I actually got them stuck in a lot of mud) and not one but two fishing stories where Kennedy caught a variety of animals who don’t have gills including a crawfish and a seagull. She really does love to 🎣 cast.

Before the event wrapped, I took the time to share some of the BAE philosophy on how to live (a follow-up to our Before Anyone Else letter) and the timely process of re-naming ourselves and to name a child.

Below is a portion of this speech reformatted and bedazzled a bit for you - my followers, friends, and readers.

I know a lot of you made an extra special effort to be here today including, Kennedy’s Sister (Mercedes), and her best friend (Marinda). For those who have shared stories with us today, I want to congratulate those who overcame stage fright or maybe unlocked a near forgotten memory - this is a special moment for you to relive and for us to imagine living.

Imagine living - kind of a weird thing to say I know but that’s what stories allow us to do - imagine. I’ve been thinking a lot about life these days and what it all means.

For those of you who have followed my journey to become a writer, you may also know I love thinking deeply about the perfect word for something. I can spend weeks or months on picking the perfect word for an idea. Continually questioning - how the word makes me and others feel or maybe better stated when they hear it - what they imagine?

Tonight I’d like to spend a little bit of time talking about how I think about words and names - our names and Baeby’s name.

Hi, I’m Lawson but I go by “L” these days. “Just the letter ‘L’” as I motion with my hand and watch the barista type “E-L”. F*ck. Part of the reason I changed my name was because of the Barista Dilemma. Carry on… I spent two months on my company’s name change - spelled R-A-R-A pronounced “rah rah”. The goal of RARA’s protocol is to give a voice to a world of curators cheering on the art of NFTs - our name in action.

To my right, is my wife, Kennedy but many may not realize that this is actually her middle name. Her family and closest friend here today knew her first as Faith - a recognition of who she was, is, and maybe even who she’s becoming.

There are a lot of ways to interpret Faith in the context of believing in a god or being spiritual enough to believe in things we can’t explain. But, I think the idea of faith is more interesting when looking at the idea of self. For Kennedy, Faith is the action of believing in herself.

https://youtu.be/hZyLwfrDyjc

PRESS ▸ PLAY while you continue reading…

“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” is a quote from John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration Speech in 1961. And, in 1962, “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…” Yes, Kennedy’s middle name comes from John F. Kennedy. Inspiring by a person who changed a bit of the world with his time here, I like to think of JFK as the beginning of something for American and the world to remember or maybe even begin to imagine living.

Today, Kennedy is head of community products at Opentrons. They build robots for biologists and Kennedy’s products help these biologists connect and share knowledge through open-source software and experiments - each imagining a better future for humankind.

Then, there’s me. My middle name is Reid (spelled R-E-I-D) which is what my mom wanted to call me - likely having its own back story. My first name - Lawson was my dad’s idea which I imagine sounded cool but - the story I’ve been told since I was young - is that it came with the added benefit of encouraging me to become a lawyer and the obvious fact that I am a son. Twenty-three years later I became a lawyer which was my father’s dream. The following year, however, I became an investment banker which was my dream. Investment banking was what I knew as my dad’s profession growing up. Each of these are not so delicate proof that words and, in this case, names matter but so our role models. Cheers dad. I love you.

Fifteen days from now on February 5th is the 10th anniversary of my late wife, Cynthia Carolina Caceres Baker, passing. There are a number of stories about all of her names but I’ll focus on her last name, Caceres-Baker.

Born in Peru, Cynthia was the great, great grandchild of Andrés Avelino Cáceres, the president of Peru who led their revolutionary war against the Chilean occupation in the War of the Pacific from 1879-1893. Her last name had heritage which I thought was important to keep. At one point, I even offered to change my last name to Cáceres. Cynthia, however, insisted on taking my family name on as in the tradition of marriage.

Then, there is Kennedy and my last names. For those of you who read our annual letter BAE means “before anyone else”. A week and half ago, we filed to change our last names to BAE. It was a bit of a weird process filing that paperwork because we technically already changed our last names in this weird ying-yang style mashup. K is Kennedy McDaniel-Baker. I’m Lawson Baker-McDaniel. I know - confusing. Bae - three letters is better for a lot of reasons which I encourage you to read more about in the annual letter if you haven’t already.

Then, there is Baeby (B-A-E-B-Y). Yes, we Bae everything. It’s just soooo easy. What should we call him or her?

I’m excited to announce…that we do have a name for Baeby. We imagined it sometime in November. While we won’t be revealing Baeby’s name today, we do have a logo.

nft://1/0xd9d5047aee5cddca289ca500a1d915efcf6b6a41/12

Excited about LCB ☄ ?

Mint a free COMING SOON poster available through April 30th, 2023.

All great creations have jumping off points.

First, there’s Elvis Presley’s ⚡ TCB logo. Shorthand for Taking Care of Business, Elvis created a number of TCB necklaces for others.

Then, while technically not part of the logo, it’s worth noting the our silhouette above COMING SOON in the poster originated from our 2020 Wedding Invite.

The silhouette was from a self-portrait in May 2020.

Cynthia took this last photo of herself as she lay in bed with her Pomeranian, Coco.

Yesterday, Coco laid with Kennedy and me for the last time…two days shy of 10 years. At 16.5 years old, Coco’s presence was bigger than his 3.5 pound fluffy body would suggest. Coco, like Cynthia, could own a room. 

I read somewhere that progress is not linear. It’s more like a loop attempting to spin upward. Each loop passes by a few new things and a few familiar spots - revisiting ideas and memories. 

Grief too spins upward in days and years - some make progress, some are flat, and others may even digress. But we keep spinning. We keep looking up. We’re moving. 

Coco kept me moving. After a brief period living with my parents, Kennedy and I flew to Memphis to bury my Jack Russel, Ema. I think Kennedy said it first, “Coco should fly home with us.” And, he did. Kennedy took over from there - getting a travel bag, coordinating vet sign-off with my sister Becky, and dealing with the airline.

Arriving in San Francisco he was exposed to a lot of new things including Kennedy’s seventy pound shepherd, the late Bear.

As the years passed, Kennedy taught Coco every trick in the book. Yes, old dogs can learn new tricks.  K also taught me how to talk to Coco again. It was like I had to find a way to reintroduce myself and apologize for something out of my control.

A natural empath - Coco understood. He was always aware of everyone’s emotional state. Like Cynthia, Coco’s eyes always found you. By the time he was in your lap, nothing else really mattered.

As Coco passed yesterday, I thanked him. I thanked him for keeping me moving. I hope to see you again some day, buddy.

You’re with Cynthia now. Brush your hair if you want, enjoy the laps, keep your eyes on the camera, and keep moving. We’ll pass by you again sometime soon.

love,

L & K Bae

First to view the place, first to apply, it was our home by December 2017. Slowly and artfully we transformed weird into something spiritual - a home beyond where you sleep, it was a place to dream. We painted, colored, and wrote poems almost daily for years. We explored the world. We explored each other.

Then, came COVID-19. January speculation on Twitter turned to near mayhem by February. On February 29th, 2020 (Leap Day), we held our last party at home nicknamed “BAEview” by this point. Half IRL and half remote, it was a great event but everything had clearly changed. This was the last time we saw many of these friends, physically at least.

These changes led to the beautiful Saturday, April 4th, 2020. All I remember is it was sunny foggy day in San Francisco. It was our 35th day of shelter-in-place. We spent the morning sewing the BAE logo in leather on to Kennedy’s jean jacket and bird watching through the myriad of windows our home provided. Only days earlier we made the emotional decision to leave San Francisco as nomads.

Turning on my phone’s camera, I hit record and asked her to give us a tour of our home. Planned but not scheduled, Kennedy delivered an eloquent address our home deserved. Around 32 minutes later, I propped the camera up on our mantel as she neared the end. I asked to join in as a tour guide. A package had finally arrived that morning after months of design. It was a ring made by my friend, Kim Ries Whittington signifying K’s love for the ocean and my love for green sapphires - thanks “Romancing the Stone”!

“I have something for you,” I said, handing her a little wooden box with a crystal on it.

“Look at that” - a moment of surprise.

“Will you marry me?” - the reason I was now on one knee.

“Mm-hmm.” Translation? She said yes. Happy engagement anniversary, bae.

Two years later, I sit on our ‘70’s purple mohair chair in Bed-Stuy writing this tribute. Rewatching Kennedy’s tour, I was caught by a creation we made together that week. It was a poem we co-wrote on our mirror.

“Icarus’ mistake was aiming for the closest star and thinking a star was the only destination because light is attractive but the darkness is yet to be explored.”

Happy engagement’ versary BAE. Let’s keep exploring.

The poem was minted in 3 parts as NFT #47, #48, and #49 using Words, a simple ERC721 that allows you to mint strings of text that are stored on-chain.

Read more about our 2020 engagement here.

https://medium.com/@lwsnbaker/change-is-in-the-air-f135870715b3

Then, check out our The Ultimate Tech Guide to a Virtual Wedding Fit for 2020.

Update (03.16.2022): Craig Renaud has published a tribute to his brother in Time Magazine.

https://time.com/6158039/brent-renaud-remembered-by-craig-renaud/

Update (03.16.2022): Craig Renaud and Christof Putzel are in Poland now. All funds raised up to $10,000 will go towards getting Brent’s remains and his filming partner, Juan, out of Ukraine and back home in the U.S. The remainder will go to the family to use as they see fit or donated to journalism. Don’t have ETH to buy an NFT edition? Send USD to Mami Renaud on PayPal (@mamikrenaud).

I took this picture last night while walking the snowy streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant. They call it “Bed-Stuy” and I live here now because of my late friend, Brent Renaud.

The time was 7:45pm on a Sunday and I was on foot not because I was coming home from a day of brunching but because I was on a mission. I was on a mission to tell Jeff, Brent’s brownstone neighbor, that our mutual friend had been shot and killed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

After a year and half of my wife (Kennedy McDaniel) and I living as nomads, we landed in New York. New to town, I texted the person I admire the most in New York. Weeks later he offered his home in Bed-Stuy for Kennedy and I to stay. It was Summer 2021 and he was editing a documentary in the town he called home, Little Rock, Arkansas.

“I don’t care if you pay anything” he offered unexpectedly (I convinced him otherwise). Arriving in his vacant home, I found out we had not one but two floors and the entire garden to ourselves in a magical community of the world, Bed-Stuy. I immediately mowed his lawn.

In 2012 I met Brent through Craig Renaud, his brother and partner in documentary films. They were in their 6th year of the Little Rock Film Festival. Having spent years producing documentary films for HBO, Al Jazeera, and New York Times, they found a way to bring their friends and new filmmakers alike into town.

While the LRRF quickly became my favorite event of the year, it wasn’t why I wanted to know more about Craig and Brent. They had just their second duPont-Columbia Award for an 11 minute video on Surviving the Haiti Earthquake (2012). From wounded war veterans in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics to exposing Mexican drug cartels, the Renaud brothers films had a distinct style absent of music or voice overs, preferring to let viewers into the room rather than behind a screen.

Here’s a few of their documentaries to watch:

• Off to War (Discovery 2004 - International Documentary Association Award), a 10-part series about the volunteers of the Arkansas National Guard in Iraq while peering into how the absence impacts their families left behind, the first documentary ever with this dual war-home perspective.

• Dope Sick Love (HBO 2005), a love story of two drug addicts in New York

• Arming the Mexican Cartels (2011 - duPont-Columbia Award), an incredible piece with access of both sides of Mexico’s war on drugs.

• Shelter (Vice News 2018), a view into a New Orleans homeless shelter for kids where mental health and social issues push the limits of problem not solved with just food and a roof

• Last Chance High (Vice News 2010 - Peabody Award), a series on where kids go after being kicked out of every other school in Chicago.

Beyond documentaries, Brent took photos and was working on a Masters in Fine Arts in writing - an incredible idea that someone this experienced was still challenging himself to grow. Here’s a recent piece “Learning from Little Rock: A Look at Black Lives Matter Protests and the Role of Local News”. Check out their website for a complete list of films, projects, and photography as well.

https://www.renaudbrothers.com/

These films and the men behind their lens drew me into something. Their films do not document what they saw, they document where we do dare not to look.

Years after meeting I regularly find myself searching on foot alone with my camera - not to document but for me to finally see. That night was no different. On February 9th, 2013, I spoke about the Renaud Brother’s in the eulogy for my late wife, Dr. Cynthia Caceres-Baker.

“There are people in this room that are already changing the world. There is one of the best documentary filmmakers in the world in this room. Him and [Brent] just won a duPont-Columbia Award which is the functional equivalent of an Oscar For Best picture [for documentaries]. [They] bring light to the darkest places in the world and trumpeting the world's most treasured organizations.” (Edited for clarity)

A week ago I saw a post from Ukraine on the Renaud Brother’s instagram and I honestly was afraid to engage with it. A few weeks prior, Brent had stopped by my new place in Bed-Stuy. His visits were always brief but full of stories about his next missions. He’d spend the last year working on a project for Time about refugees all over the world. From Africa to Central and South America, Brent’s light was now shining on Ukraine.

These videos. These pictures. And, these stories paint a portrait of humans across the world and provide a mirror into a giant of a journalist and artist.

On March 13, 2022, soldiers tried to tear apart Brent Renaud’s portrait of the refugees in Ukraine. Thankfully, ideas Brent shed light on cannot be torn apart.

Craig, I have no way to thank you for how you took me under your wings when Cynthia passed. Having experienced a lot of loss behind the lens with Brent, you asked the questions and offered the wisdom I needed most. I hope these words can return something to you - I am with you.

This tribute has been minted as an NFT to provide some permanence to Brent’s ideas. Any funds received from sale of this NFT or editions will be donated to causes supporting journalism.

Below is a list of notable tributes with excerpts from press and friends alike. If you know of others to note, please DM me at @lwsnbaker on Twitter so I can add them.

WARNING: One post from a correspondent includes a picture of the late Brent Renaud under a blanket.

The New York Times, a key outlet for the Renaud Brother’s, pays tribute.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/13/world/europe/brent-renaud-career-work.html

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1503011790170513409?s=20&t=EIU5Hy_Vrs8bGsxx15XamA

The Neiman Foundation published a tribute after their initial article on Brent’s passing. Both are comprehensive approaches and incredibly well written.

Here the tribute does the best at cataloging the impact of Brent and Craig’s work.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/03/celebrating-the-life-and-work-of-brent-renaud-the-filmmaker-and-nieman-fellow-killed-in-ukraine/

From the initial news, “He told us that what he sought in his journalism was ‘thoughtful stories about disenfranchised people,’ and he lived up to that credo every day. His death is a devastating loss.” Nieman curator Ann Marie Lipinski.

https://nieman.harvard.edu/news/2022/03/brent-renaud-a-2019-nieman-fellow-has-been-killed-on-assignment-in-ukraine/

After Brent’s passing, his Wikipedia page came to life as multiple authors furiously pressed his life into the world’s encyclopedia.

“Instead of seeing people as good or bad, it was as if he saw a world filled with beautiful people and places under tragic circumstances. He spent his life showing us that this is true.” (link)

Володимир Зеленський, President of Ukraine’s, letter to Craig and the family.

“He was the kind of documentary filmmaker everyone wants to be but few ever actually become” Simon Ostrovsky, PBS Newshour Special Correspondent, tribute (link)

Post from correspondent and witness in Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/JaneFerguson5/status/1503000669153808387?s=20&t=Iu0-AYCrDsMnW_ncEqCQ7g

Matthew Teague, another Nieman Fellow, on Twitter (link)

Vice News, a long time outlet for the Renaud Brother’s, pays tribute (link).

White Water Tavern, a local watering hole for artists in Little Rock, pays tribute.

https://twitter.com/whitewaterbarar/status/1503124923124006916?s=21

Carolyn Gregoire’s tweets and tribute in The Buddhist Review Tricycle*.*

https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/brent-renaud-journalist/

https://vimeo.com/688196950?ref=tw-share

(Added March 24, 2022)

“His work often took him to some of the most dangerous places on earth. He did so knowing the risks, trying to minimize them as much as possible. He died covering a war, but to describe him as a war correspondent is too limiting. He was a humanity correspondent.

…Truth is the first casualty of war. Those determined to tell it, like Brent Renaud, are often next in line.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/03/14/metro/requiem-humanity-correspondent/?event=event25

The Washington Post includes a number of noteworthy quotes from Nan Renaud, Christof Putzel, Jon Alpert, and others.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/13/brent-renaud-killed-ukraine/?utm_campaign=wp_evening_edition&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_evening&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F364faac%2F622e5bb09d2fda34e7ceaa7a%2F596f480bade4e25e02997386%2F13%2F43%2F622e5bb09d2fda34e7ceaa7a

CNN’s coverage includes a quote from Christof Putzel, a friend and partner of the Renaud Brother’s in “Arming the Mexican Cartels", a duPont-Award winning documentary.

"What I said when we accepted our award was, the only thing bigger than Brent's balls are his heart. And I stand by that. That's what kind of journalist he was," said Putzel.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/03/13/media/russia-ukraine-brent-renaud-death-intl/index.html

Committee to Protect Journalists' statement

Arkansas Governor statement

Facebook is full of tributes. Here is a link to the search for his name.

Finally, here is my initial tribute on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/lwsnbaker/status/1503052360419000324