Eleanor Whitlock
Founder & Director
Spent fifteen years in market research asking people what they wanted. Now she asks them to dinner instead.
About Cultunio
We build rooms where strangers become regulars.
Cultunio is a small Brooklyn company with a simple belief: communities are not made by living near each other, but by doing things together. Since 2017 we have hosted more than 1,400 gatherings and welcomed guests who speak 60 languages between them.
Our mission
Make it easy, and normal, to know your neighbors.
In a city of more than eight million people, it is entirely possible to live somewhere for a decade and not know the name of the person on the other side of the wall. We do not think that is anyone's fault. Long hours, long commutes and the New York habit of minding your own business all get in the way.
So we design gatherings that take the awkwardness out of meeting people. Every event has a reason to be there beyond "networking", a host trained to bring in the quiet ones, and a format that lets conversation happen naturally: passing dishes, walking side by side, stitching a quilt, singing in the same key.
We are a for-profit LLC, not a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and we fund our work through ticket sales, memberships and paid work for city agencies, schools and employers. Profits are reinvested in pay-what-you-can seats and in paying community cooks, tellers and guides fairly.
How we got here
Eight years, one long table.
- 2017
A block party on Hartfield Street
Eleanor Whitlock organizes a summer block party on her street in Crown Heights. Neighbors of thirty years meet for the first time. Eleanor quits her job in market research three months later.
- 2018
The first supper club
Twelve guests, one borrowed church basement and a Sylheti fish curry cooked by Rukhsana's neighbor Jahanara. Tickets cost $15 and we lost $112.
- 2019
Storytelling nights begin
Kwame Mensah joins and launches Tell Me Something True with a Brooklyn Public Library branch. The first night has 19 people. The third has a line around the block.
- 2020
Stoop conversations
During the pandemic we run phone and stoop-side Conversation Circles for 340 isolated residents in partnership with Brooklyn mutual aid groups.
- 2022
A home at Hartfield Yard
We sign a lease on a converted 1890s warehouse in Brooklyn with a kitchen, a hall for 60 and a courtyard. The choir and Stitch & Story start the same month.
- 2024
Beyond Brooklyn
We open Language Swap Cafes in Astoria and Conversation Circles in Philadelphia, run by local hosts we train in Brooklyn.
- 2026
The Cultunio Journal
Our quarterly print journal launches with six long-form stories per issue and 1,900 subscribers in its first six months.
What we will always do
Six promises to every guest.
These are written on the wall of our kitchen at Hartfield Yard, and every new host signs them before their first event.
Small on purpose
No gathering is bigger than 60 people. Most are under 25. Above that, people stop meeting and start watching.
Never priced out
At least one in five seats at every event is offered pay-what-you-can, from $5, with no explanation required.
Communities lead
Traditions are presented by the people they belong to. We pay every cook, teller and guide for their time.
Access first
Wheelchair-accessible venues, quiet spaces, large-print menus on request and free entry for personal care attendants.
Safe and respectful
Every host is trained in harm prevention and conflict de-escalation. Our code of conduct is read aloud at every event.
Light footprint
Real dishes, no single-use plastic, leftover food shared or donated, and suppliers within fifty miles where possible.
The team
Four staff, 140 volunteers, countless cooks.
Our core team is small. Most of what happens at Cultunio is made possible by volunteers who first came through the door as guests.
Kwame Mensah
Head of Community Programs
Former youth worker from the Bronx. Trains every host and still runs the first storytelling workshop of each season.
Priya Nair
Editor & Communications
Previously a local news reporter in Edison, New Jersey. Edits the Journal and interviews every person we feature.
Owen Price
Operations & Finance
From Cardiff, Wales, via thirty years in New York restaurants. Keeps the lights on, the books balanced and the coffee urns full.
Since 2017
The long table, so far.
Figures from our booking system and annual guest surveys, independently reviewed by our accountants each year.
1,430
gatherings hosted since our first supper in 2018
4,300
individual guests, plus thousands of repeat visits
212
community cooks, tellers and guides paid for their work
60
languages spoken by our guests and hosts
Who we work with
Partners across New York and beyond.
Libraries, faith groups, housing nonprofits, schools and independent cafes lend us their rooms, their audiences and their wisdom.
We are always open to new partnerships, especially with organizations working with recent immigrants, older adults living alone and young people aging out of foster care.
Propose a partnership- Brooklyn library branches
- St. Jude's Parish Hall
- Queens library branches
- Richmond Hill gurdwara langar
- Bushwick Repair Cafe
- Greenpoint Polish bakeries
- Crown Heights panyards
- Philadelphia community kitchen
- Astoria independent cafes
- Brooklyn mutual aid groups
- Bronx youth theater
- Bay Ridge folk session
Come to one thing. See what happens.
The easiest first step is a Conversation Circle or a Language Swap Cafe. Both cost less than a cocktail and nobody will ask you to speak in front of the room.