Gradually. Then suddenly. The City Tutors at 4 years

Watch the video package from the night here. It captures the feeling better than a recap can.

This past November, The City Tutors (CT) marked its fourth year as an official nonprofit with a celebration at Dolby 88, a screening room most New Yorkers never learn how to find. New York is full of rooms like that, places that hold the city’s creative and professional life without ever feeling available to most of the people who keep the city running.

CT exists to build a village of support, so a hard city feels navigable and the professional world stops feeling like it belongs to someone else. At Dolby 88, you could see that idea working in real time.

The theater filled with familiar faces and new ones: learners, tutees, and mentees alongside tutors who make it normal to ask for help and normal to keep going; mentors who help people name what they want, then take them seriously; partners and advocates from across the city; and longtime supporters whose roles have shifted over time but remain close to the mission.

A recent graduate looked around and said, almost to themselves, “I’ve lived in New York my whole life. I’ve never been in a place like this.”

A mentor asked, “What are you trying to do next?”

Phones came out. Names went into contacts. “Text me tomorrow.” “Send me what you have.” “I’ll connect you.” The room sounded like momentum, plans made in shorthand, futures discussed without apology.

Later, it quieted for a film.

Wendell Moore, one of our longtime partners, shared Stepping Off with Juvey D, a film he brought directly to this community and that is now entering festivals.

“This is something I made when I was younger,” he said. “I didn’t know where it would land. I just kept working.”

Before the screening, he quoted Hemingway: “Gradually. Then suddenly.”

He meant the film. But it also describes what happens when support is consistent. The touchpoints stack: a tutoring session, a mentor check-in, an event, a follow-up, a person who remembers your name. Gradually, until suddenly something shifts. A door opens. A decision gets made. A life looks different.

We’re grateful to Landing Point for sponsoring the evening.

Now the work is turning toward year five. If you’re interested in joining our Development Subcommittee, schedule a call with our Executive Director Garri Rivkin: calendly.com/grivkin. We want the fifth year to reflect what this community already is—and to keep building it together.