Lynel's Homecoming Week End Celebration

Thank you for all the great love and respect you've all shown for my brother Lynel Balentine Gardner.

 

Born to Bobby Gardner on January 15th, 1964, exactly one year after our mother, Virginia Eury, gave birth to me.

 

We always felt even as little kids that we were meant to do bigger things in this world, because we were both born on Martin Luther King's birthday. I know this to be true after witnessing how Lynel touched so many people during his short life here on this planet. He was living that path in his own way through his training in seminary school, by his dedication to his spiritual practice, his teaching of Jui Jitsu, and his teen activism, especially with women and kids – "Theater as prevention" –  as well as his public speaking, acting and solo performances. He was very active in the community he lived in, and to my surprise, how everyone in the apartment building he managed came to me and said how he was their friend, giving their kids rides to where they needed to go or gave them gift cards when they did good in school and how he talked to them and their parents about their lives, it was his greatest inspiration working with kids, because he was a big kid at heart and they loved him too.

 

We've decided to have his remembrance celebration on Saturday May 7th and want to have it at an outside location or possibly at his old high school where he was crowned Homecoming King, if I can arrange it?

Lynel made it clear to his closest friends that he didn't want to be cremated or have a boring, drawn-out service, which made me laugh!   So this is what has come to me in how to honor my brother's life, and how I feel we can send him off smiling, while we all come together with film, music, performance, food, dance, remembrance; and what he would want most of all, is for us is to reconnect as friends and family to share our laughs, hugs and stories.

 

I had a dream we would come together to create films at some point. We were discussing doing a documentary, I was going to make about the Art culture of San Francisco and the loss of it's soul I've observed happening over the past 2 decades.

The funny thing is, I never had an interest in film, but because he did, I forced myself to understand the craft by studying it -- through editing, set design and videography-- while on my creative path as a designer, builder, producer and art director. Never thought my desire to be a concert promoter when I was in high school, would end up with me being an artist, gallery owner, experiencing some of the most miraculous blessed paths I ever could have imagined.

 

It literally forced me to face my fears, and took faith for me to go against everything I've been taught growing up.

 

I only had my spiritual practice, my faith and those who helped clear and showed me how to make a path more than I could have ever imagined. The journey transcended beyond me, and I was able to meet and work with the most amazing people, artists, and geniuses that made me question how and why this was happening to me, was truly living a waking dream.  Along with the trials and tribulations, were some of the most cathartic heart opening experiences that made me grow into the man I am.

 

I never had the chance to tell him why I got into film, but trained myself by shooting weddings and doing art direction on music videos, and a little acting so I could understand and be in concert with him; I had a vision of the future and saw how we perfectly complemented each other and how I envisioned us being a Gardner brother wonder twin force in the industry. I dreamed of producing a Netflix series with him about growing up in MV and how special it was, and how it set the tone for our lives with all the unique people we experienced, was also hoping to make a cheesy Kung Fu movie like the ones we grew up on; and of course, collaborate on some documentaries on what we felt were important for people to hear about.

 

We were pretty tight as brothers, it was truly special. But we were more distant these last couple of years due to my life not being stable, and I wanted him to focus on his life and not worry -- like I knew he did -- for his big brother.

 

Because of how he was taken from us, my path now is to combine and finish the work of 20+ years he laid the foundation for and will complete his independent film that he was working on about his own story, our grandfather, and his social commentary on race, media and the myths the media keeps alive about the sterotypes of balck folks and our leaders; and for me to publish his poems, stories, books and documentaries to make sure I get the information out on how he passed, (if it's what we suspect but and are still unsure of until we get the results from the lab in 3 to 6 months) once we have irrefutable evidence to the facts.

 

We were both artists living to share our stories in how we were raised and have been open books about our lives. We wanted to help others see and understand the pain, laughter and hope we envisioned for the world, and share these experiences creativly through our art and hopefully offer ideas and solutions on how we can heal through empathy, love and compassion to help bring us all together. This was our tool, our weapon of ideas that we could use to help heal ourselves as well.

 

Please keep an eye on our Facebook pages for more details of times.  

 

Because of the pain and trauma, I will speak of him in the present and not in the past, because I know he's still here, but working behind the scenes for what he and I talked about: how we all may come together.

 

He’s rocking with us in his highest form and doing great acts unseen, felt and carried through me to this community and to those who have similar stories I can share.  Because my life is no longer mine, and I vow to stand for you and won't stand for letting any foul play go unheard.

 

So I dedicate and promise I will bring everything that I am and have been, with the protection of God and your prayers and the help of this community, that we seek and share the truth.  So I can possibly offer solutions and irrefutable facts, so others can become aware of this betrayal I feel we're living through.

 

Thank you for all this love that has cracked my heart open even more.

 

Sadly it sometimes takes loss like this to bring us together after decades of living through this life and I ask for those who are able to stand with and by me in any way you can help, whether if you have information of others, or have experienced harm by taking this vaccine or boosters. Please reach out to me without hesitation, because there is no way I can do it by myself.  I need you and ask that we come together for the sake of all our families and loved ones, to make sure we move forward safely in this time so we can have a conversation with intelligence, common sense, and move as one voice and determination not to allow ourselves to be lied to and led by those in power, who don’t have our interest at heart, down a rabbit hole we can never come back from.

 

My brother's life will continue to live through me creatively and so my life is his and my life is yours now. I love you and can't wait to see you soon.

 

God Bless.