You’re Dating a Narcissist! Comes to Washington, DC on June 24. Filmmaker Ann Marie Allison and Star Ciara Bravo to Attend Invitation-Only Screening and Q&A

NY Weekly Staff on June 4, 2026

The Romantic Comedy Starring Marisa Tomei Sparks a Conversation About Relationships, Red Flags, and Trusting Your Instincts

You’re Dating a Narcissist!, the acclaimed romantic comedy feature starring Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei, Sherry Cola, and Ciara Bravo, will screen in Washington, DC on Wednesday, June 24 at the Angelika Film Pop Up at Union Market. The invitation-only event will be hosted by Angelika Film Pop Up at Union Market, Modern Luxury DC, and Union Market District, and will include a post-screening Q&A with filmmaker Ann Marie Allison and actress Ciara Bravo.

Additional guests are expected to include Washington, DC-based artist and activist Maggie O’Neill, whose artwork appears in the film, along with members of the filmmaking team.

The June 24 screening is a private event for invited guests, media, community leaders, artists, and supporters. Additional public programming, including a public screening and related events, will be announced separately.

Now available to rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV+, Fandango at Home, and other major platforms, You’re Dating a Narcissist! arrives in Washington just weeks after World Narcissistic Abuse Awareness Day and fresh off a successful theatrical and streaming release.

The film follows Judy Kaplan (Marisa Tomei), a sharp-tongued psychology professor obsessed with spotting narcissists, who flies across the country determined to expose her daughter’s seemingly perfect fiancé as a fraud. What begins as a mission to save her daughter quickly becomes a heartfelt and hilarious journey about love, intuition, and learning when to let go.

“I wanted to make a film that could make people laugh while also helping them recognize relationship patterns that are often difficult to name,” said writer-director Ann Marie Allison. “At its heart, it’s a story about trusting yourself, finding your voice, and realizing you’re not alone.”

In a city that knows something about power, charm, and people who rewrite the rules to suit themselves, the screening offers a timely opportunity to laugh, connect, and engage in a conversation about relationships, red flags, and reclaiming your instincts.

Allison’s companion book, You’re Dating a Narcissist!,is also available now. Written in the voice of Dr. Judy Kaplan, the no-nonsense relationship expert portrayed by Tomei in the film, the humorous self-help guide translates narcissist nonsense into plain English. Through real-life stories, practical advice, and Judy’s signature wit, the book helps readers identify red flags, establish healthier boundaries, and trust themselves again. A Washington, DC book signing for Allison’s companion guide, You’re Dating a Narcissist!, is planned for later that week, with details to be announced.

Written and directed by Ann Marie Allison and co-written by Jenna Milly, You’re Dating a Narcissist! stars Marisa Tomei, Sherry Cola, Ciara Bravo, Marco Pigossi, and José María Yazpik. The film was produced by Allison, Jorge García Castro, and The Wonder Company.

Screening Details

What:
Private Screening of You’re Dating a Narcissist! followed by a Q&A

When:
Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Time:
Red Carpet Begins: 6:30 p.m.
Private Screening Begins: 7:30 p.m.

Where:
Angelika Film Pop-Up at Union Market
550 Penn Street NE
Washington, DC 20002

Special Guests:
Ann Marie Allison (Writer/Director)
Ciara Bravo (Actor)
Maggie O’Neill (Artist and Activist)
Additional filmmakers and guests to be announced

Hosted By:
EDENS
Angelika Film Center at Union Market
Modern Luxury DC

Website:
youredatinganarcissist.com

Instagram:
@youredatinganarcissistmovie

Game Changers Brings Inspirational Sports Stories to Teens

NY Weekly Staff on June 4, 2026

When Dan Gold sat down to write a book, he wasn’t chasing a highlight reel. He wanted something his own four children would actually enjoy, learn from, and finish, then return to later. As he kept writing, he began to realize the stories might have a broader appeal, that plenty of other teens, parents, and coaches could benefit from them too. The result is Game Changers, a debut work that gathers inspirational sports stories from more than forty athletes and coaches and pairs each one with tools a teen can carry off the field. In under a year, the book has sold more than 100,000 copies, and as of this month, it has reached bookstores across the country alongside its original home online.

That expansion marks a notable moment for a first-time author writing in a crowded category. Plenty of titles celebrate famous athletes. Far fewer try to turn those careers into a workbook for growing up.

What Makes These Inspirational Sports Stories Different?

Most sports books stop at the final score. This one treats the score as the starting point. Each chapter opens with a real, sometimes messy moment from an athlete’s life, then closes with material meant to bring the lesson home: self-reflection prompts, action steps, interactive exercises, and small challenges built around confidence and character.

Gold describes the format as a coach in the reader’s corner. The stories supply the drama. The exercises ask the teen to do something with it, whether that means setting a goal, examining a recent setback, or thinking through how they tend to react when the pressure climbs.

A single conviction runs underneath the whole project. Real success, in Gold’s framing, gets measured less by trophies and more by effort, resilience, and the kind of character that outlasts any one season.

From the Operating Room to the Youth Sidelines

Dan Gold came to writing by an unusual route. Raised in the Midwest, he caught and pitched in baseball, wrestled through long winters, and played linebacker on Friday nights. Those seasons taught him about teamwork and about getting back up after a loss that stung.

His professional life unfolded as a surgeon and in business, careers that demanded preparation, composure, and focus under pressure. The parallels to sport were never far from his thinking. As a father of four and a youth coach, he watched the same values shape his own children and the young athletes he worked with.

His debut earned the 2025 Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal, recognition that helped carry the series to a wider audience. He now writes from Connecticut, circling back again and again to one idea: victories fade, but character endures.

How the Book Turns Athlete Journeys Into Practical Tools

The cast of figures inside spans eras, sports, and backgrounds. Readers meet Tom Brady, an overlooked draft pick who built one of football’s most decorated careers through relentless preparation. They follow Michael Phelps, who learned to channel the intensity of ADHD into focus on swimming’s biggest stage.

Leadership and resilience anchor several chapters. Abby Wambach’s team-first mentality lifted her squads and later fueled her advocacy. Serena Williams pushed through racism, sexism, and personal hardship on her way to becoming one of the most dominant players in tennis history. Michael Jordan turned early failure into fuel.

Jackie Robinson carries one of the weightier chapters, his courage in breaking baseball’s racial barrier reshaping far more than the game itself. Figure skating icon Yuna Kim shows how one athlete can lift a nation and then use that platform to help others.

Woven together, these journeys illuminate themes that keep recurring: mental toughness, identity, integrity, and the slow work of becoming someone you respect. The book asks teens not only to admire these athletes but to notice what they can borrow from them.

A Shared Language for Parents, Teachers, and Coaches

Gold wrote the series for young readers, yet he built it with the adults around them in mind. Parents often struggle to teach life skills that stick, and the stories give families a way to open a conversation without it turning into a lecture. A chapter on perseverance can spark a talk that a direct sit-down rarely manages.

Teachers have found a similar fit in the classroom. The narratives pair naturally with social-emotional learning, and the reflection prompts double as writing assignments or discussion starters. Because the featured figures come from many sports, cultures, and eras, the material reaches a wide range of students.

Coaches form the third audience. The book leans on coaching legends such as John Wooden, Bill Walsh, Pat Summitt, and Gregg Popovich, whose methods give young athletes clear examples of leadership and team culture. Many coaches use the chapters as a jumping-off point for pregame talks, team meetings, and end-of-season gifts.

Photo Courtesy: Dan Gold

Reaching Bookstores Nationwide

For most of its first year, the title lived exclusively online. This month changes that. The book is now stocked in local bookstores nationwide, a step that puts it in front of readers who browse shelves rather than search bars.

More about the series sits on the official Game Changers book website, and the title remains available on its Amazon listing as well as through Bookshop.org, which directs sales to independent stores. And his second book, Game Changers: Inspirational Sports Stories, carries the same theme to coaches. A two-in-one collection gives anyone who wants the full set a single option.

For a debut author who started with a stack of locker-room lessons and a wish to pass them along, the move from one online retailer to shelves across the country shows how far a straightforward idea can travel.

Ordinary Vows, Extraordinary War: When Love Becomes a Survival Skill

NY Weekly Staff on June 4, 2026

Most marriages plan for the ordinary emergencies, busted water heaters, missed flights, a parent’s late night call. Michael and Ann never planned for this. In The Past Always Comes Back, a quiet life is shredded in seconds, and two people discover that the vows they once whispered, love, honor, protect, aren’t sentimental; they’re operational. What happens next isn’t just a chase. It’s a crash course in turning a shared life into a survival skill.

The inciting shock is swift and surgical: an attack designed to end the story before it starts. But survival resets the terms. Michael, who has spent years keeping an older, harder self out of sight, recognizes the pattern instantly: this isn’t random violence, it’s a professionally mounted erasure. He’s staged for the nightmare contingencies, gear, a plan he hoped would gather dust, and he opens that vault not to play the lone protector but to recruit a partner. The arithmetic is cruel and unarguable: he can’t fight and shield at once. And Ann won’t be cargo.

That’s the hinge on which the whole novel turns. Ann is the book’s axis of change, and Patzer treats her evolution with respect. She doesn’t flip a switch and become someone else; she decides, moment by trembling moment, to become capable. The early steps are uncomfortable and honest, grip wrong, stance unsteady, breath too fast, followed by the small calibrations that add up to competence. The bruises matter. So do the questions: What will this ask of me? What will it make of me? That interior battle gives the action a moral pulse, the sense that every tactical move casts a human shadow.

“Ordinary vows, extraordinary war” isn’t a slogan, it’s the book’s blueprint. The same traits that sustain a long marriage, attention, trust, a thousand tiny understandings, turn out to be tactical advantages when the margin for error collapses. He knows when her voice sharpens into warning; she can tell when his calm is the brittle kind. Their apologies are made with actions because there’s no time for speeches. Their private shorthand, half a look, a fingertip press, becomes communication discipline under pressure. The partnership isn’t a break from the action; it is the action.

Place shapes everything. The story moves from American backroads that trade distance for options, to Canadian crossings that tighten those options into tests of timing and nerve, to European streets where sightlines compress and every corner becomes a decision. Geography isn’t wallpaper here; it’s a lever. A stretch of highway is freedom at 70 mph and exposure at 10. A crowded square is covered, until it isn’t. The couple learns to let terrain dictate tactics and tempo, and the reader feels that adjustment in the shoulders: loosen on the open road, tense in the alley.

Patzer’s background (military discipline, engineering clarity, and a chaplain’s eye for consequence) hums beneath the surface. The tradecraft is clean and unshowy, how to use a parking lot without being seen, when to pick up a phone, and when to smash it, what to do with the minute between hearing and being heard. The novel never turns into a manual; it gives you just enough to trust the moves and then gets out of the way so the pulse can do its work. You’re not reading to admire gadgets; you’re reading to see whether courage, competence, and conscience can keep pace with a ruthless threat.

That conscience matters. Too many thrillers treat collateral damage as set dressing. The Past Always Comes Back insists on counting costs. Michael’s calculus is cool because lives depend on it; Ann’s questions are warm because the life afterward depends on those, too. Together, they draw lines they mean to hold. Then the plot does what good plots do: it tests those lines. The book doesn’t lecture, and it doesn’t flinch. It trusts the reader to recognize that survival can bruise the soul and that the work of healing starts long before the sirens fade.

Under all the velocity, the novel remembers the small, anchoring things, the way a coffee mug sits in the hand, the rhythm of a familiar street, a private joke that survives even when everything else doesn’t. Those details keep the pages human. They remind you that what’s at stake isn’t just “winning.” It’s keeping a life together intact enough that it can be lived when the danger passes. That’s why the near misses feel closer, the debates feel sharper, and the quiet beats feel earned. You’re not just processing logistics; you’re rooting for a marriage.

If you love Jack Reacher’s pragmatism, Gabriel Allon’s layered intelligence, or Mitch Rapp’s relentless pressure, but you also want a story that carries a moral center, this is a sweet spot. It’s lean (46,827 words) and engineered for momentum, yet it refuses to outsource its heart. Scenes start late, end early, and leave you on the lip of the next choice. The hunter hunted dynamic keeps flipping because everyone is learning. There’s satisfaction in the competence and sting in the consequence, the combo that turns pages into a sprint.

No spoilers here. This article won’t name the ghost from yesterday, won’t map the money trail, won’t tip the endgame. The point isn’t to give up the plot; it’s to show you why the plot will give up your evening. The Past Always Comes Back starts with ordinary vows and pulls them through an extraordinary war, asking along the way what love looks like when love has to fight.

If you’ve ever wondered whether “for better or worse” can hold at highway speed, here’s your proof on the page.

Put your vows where the danger is. Buy The Past Always Comes Back today at CoffeeCup Publishing and watch ordinary love become the most extraordinary survival skill of all.

Why Pergolas Are Becoming a Core Part of Outdoor Living Design

NY Weekly Staff on June 4, 2026

By Anas Zandaki, Country Director, North America of PERGOLUX

For many homeowners, the backyard isn’t just a patch of grass or a place for occasional barbecues. It’s become a true extension of the home, a space for entertaining, relaxing, and enjoying the outdoors in comfort.

As a result, people are approaching outdoor design differently.

One of the biggest shifts we’ve seen at PERGOLUX is that people want their outdoor space to function as an additional room of the house. Instead of thinking of their outdoor space as seasonal, they want to design year-round enjoyment.

Thinking Beyond Furniture

Creating a usable outdoor space requires more than adding patio furniture. Designers and homeowners are considering structures that add shade and protection from the weather. Pergolas have become popular solutions because they create defined outdoor rooms while maintaining an open feel.

Traditionally, pergolas featured fixed slats that allowed sunlight to filter through. Newer designs have expanded the capabilities of these structures.

Adjustable louvered roofs, for example, allow homeowners to control sun exposure and airflow throughout the day. They can also prevent rain, if you want to enjoy your outdoor space during a rainy summer day. This level of flexibility makes a big difference in how often people actually use their outdoor space.

Designing For Multiple Uses

Like with the home itself, homeowners are looking for multifunctionality. Since more people are spending more time at home, they need the spaces in their homes to serve multiple roles.

An outdoor pergola structure might cover a dining area, provide shade near a pool, or create a comfortable lounge space for reading and conversation. The goal is to make the backyard adaptable for both everyday use and larger gatherings.

We always encourage people to think about how they want to use the space. Do they want a quiet space to relax? Do they want to entertain during the holidays? Or a space for more regular entertaining? Once those questions are answered, the design decisions become much clearer on what they want and need.

Blending Style And Durability

When it comes to the outdoors, it’s not as simple as erecting a 10-foot structure. It needs to be durable and withstand changing weather, from the hot sun to storms.

More robust pergolas are those made of powder-coated aluminum or another weather-resistant material, built to withstand strong coastal winds, heavy snow loads, and the glaring sun.

Scandinavian-inspired designs, known for clean lines and practical functionality, have also influenced outdoor structures in recent years due to their ability to complement homes of all different aesthetics. These designs emphasize complicity while ensuring that products can handle harsh climates.

Outdoor Living As A Long-Term Investment

As homeowners continue investing in their properties, outdoor living spaces are increasingly adding value to homes. A well-designed backyard can serve as a daily retreat, a gathering place for friends and family, or simply a comfortable place to unwind.

At the end of the day, the best outdoor spaces are the ones people actually use. When you design with purpose (taking into consideration weather, comfort, and usability), you create an environment that becomes part of everyday life.

Anas Zandaki is Director of PERGOLUX North America, overseeing the company’s growth, operations, and market expansion across the United States and Canada. Zandaki holds a master’s degree in business and economics and a bachelor’s degree in financial and banking sciences from Philadelphia University. Before joining PERGOLUX, he held multiple leadership roles at a unicorn in Germany, where he led international expansion initiatives, launched new markets, and managed full P&L ownership across the Nordics. His experience spans scaling international operations, optimizing profitability, and building high-performing cross-functional teams, with a focus on delivering premium customer experiences and accelerating sustainable growth in new markets.

A Forbidden Grimoire Learns Nursery Rhymes

NY Weekly Staff on June 4, 2026

The first joke of Necronomicon Nursery Rhymes is visual. Before a single poem begins, the book appears to be staging a grand occult performance. The title page wears its gothic type like a ceremonial robe. The parchment backgrounds suggest age, secrecy, and danger. Even the mock copyright page participates in the act, dryly warning that the publisher will not be liable for the summoning of deities. It is the kind of joke that tells you exactly what kind of book this is: clever, theatrical, and fully committed to its own absurdity.

Then the rhymes begin, and the second joke arrives. The supposedly forbidden world of cosmic horror has been moved into the rhythms of childhood. Not softened entirely, not explained away, not turned into bland cuteness, but redirected. The creatures of nightmare become companions in ordinary rituals: washing up, going to sleep, playing outdoors, heading to school, visiting friends, relaxing on the couch.

This is where S. F. Craftlove’s book finds its real energy. It understands that humor is often a matter of distance. Cosmic horror traditionally depends on vastness. Human beings are tiny. The universe is indifferent. The gods are older than thought. Craftlove narrows the camera. Suddenly, the ancient being is not looming over civilization; it is involved in bath time. Now the dreadful name is not whispered by a doomed scholar; it is bouncing through a nursery rhyme.

That shift makes the book accessible, but it also gives it an unexpectedly warm center. The manuscript’s “Letter to the Reader” explains that these creatures may not be what people assume. The book repeatedly returns to that idea: the monstrous is not always malicious, and fear can be a poor guide. In a children’s book, that message could easily become syrupy. Here, because it comes wrapped in tentacles, jokes, and faux-forbidden scholarship, it feels fresh.

The illustrations are essential to the effect. They have a hand-drawn, comic looseness that keeps the tone friendly, while never allowing the creatures to look entirely normal. Many-eyed faces, exaggerated limbs, odd bodies, and theatrical expressions populate the pages. The art gives each figure enough personality to be funny, enough weirdness to remain memorable, and enough visual simplicity to keep the book moving.

Craftlove’s rhymes have a handmade quality, which suits the project. They are playful, direct, and often knowingly silly. The best lines work because they sound like something a child might chant, even when the subject matter belongs to a locked shelf in a doomed library. The book’s table of contents alone reads like a comic manifesto: lessons, snow days, movies, and school days, all attended by beings who usually arrive with thunder, madness, or prophecy.

The book will likely speak most strongly to horror fans with children, teachers who enjoy offbeat read-aloud material, collectors of strange illustrated books, and readers who like their whimsy with a little shadow. Yet it also has a broader appeal. Its central idea is easy to grasp and hard to resist: maybe the monster is not the problem. Maybe the problem is how quickly we decide what a monster is.

By the end, Necronomicon Nursery Rhymes has done something more interesting than parody. It has made the Mythos feel playful without making it harmless, affectionate without making it dull. It does not drain the darkness. It hangs fairy lights in it.

Sergey Bratukhin Biography: Why Documentary Photography Is Not Journalism

NY Weekly Staff on June 4, 2026

Sergey Bratukhin Biography and the Difference Between Observation and News

People often assume that documentary photography and journalism belong to the same professional territory because both photographers and reporters work with reality, public spaces, migration, labor, cities, and human behavior while reacting to the world as it changes. For Bratukhin Sergey, however, documentary photography is not primarily about delivering information but about understanding emotional meaning inside ordinary moments, whereas journalism focuses on recording events themselves.

That is why he believes the similarity between the two professions mostly ends there.

For Bratukhin, documentary photography studies human presence inside those events, and that distinction eventually became central to the artistic method that shaped his work over the last decade.

Born in Almaty and later based between Europe and the UAE, he developed his visual language through long periods of observation rather than fast editorial assignments. His projects rarely begin with headlines or breaking stories, instead growing out of repetition: the same street corner, the same neighborhood, and the same people returning to familiar routines.

In interviews, Bratukhin Sergey Borisovich often describes photography as “the art of noticing pauses.” That idea explains why he distances himself from traditional reportage. A journalist may arrive at a location to answer a direct question: What happened? Who was involved? Why does it matter now? A documentary photographer asks something slower and far less measurable: what does this place feel like when nobody is performing for the camera?

Why Bratukhin Sergey’s Photographs Are Built Around Long-Term Observation

One of the defining elements of his public biography is time. Unlike news photography, where speed is often everything, Bratukhin prefers projects that evolve over months or years. His well-known UAE series “Between Calls” was developed over a two-year period and focused on migrant workers during private phone conversations with family members abroad.

The concept itself would have been impossible within a newsroom structure. No editor working on a daily publication schedule could wait years for a story to slowly reveal itself. But documentary photography allows that patience. In fact, patience becomes part of the final image.

According to Bratukhin Sergey Borisovich, repetition changes the relationship between photographer and subject. During the first meeting, people still perform versions of themselves. After several weeks or months, the performance begins to fade, the camera becomes less important, and silence starts to matter more. That shift is where his photographs usually begin.

This approach also explains why many of his projects contain very little obvious action. His photographs rarely depend on dramatic gestures or sensational moments. Instead, they focus on transitional emotional states: waiting, listening, walking alone, standing in public while mentally somewhere else. For Bratukhin, those quiet intervals reveal more than visible conflict ever could.

Photo Courtesy: Sergey Bratukhin

Bratukhin Sergey Borisovich and the Ethics of Documentary Photography

Another reason documentary photography differs from journalism, according to Bratukhin, is ethical responsibility. Journalism operates within deadlines and editorial structures, while documentary photographers usually work independently and carry full responsibility for how reality is framed without institutional distance.

That creates different moral questions:

  • How close should the photographer stand to vulnerable people?
  • How much context must be preserved?
  • When does observation become exploitation?

These questions appear frequently throughout discussions surrounding the professional philosophy behind the Sergey Bratukhin biography narrative.

Bratukhin openly criticizes the growing tendency to aestheticize suffering through aggressive editing, cinematic filters, or emotionally manipulative framing. In his opinion, documentary work should remain visually restrained because excessive stylization changes how viewers emotionally process reality. This is one reason his projects often avoid heavy color grading or artificial visual effects. Even in carefully composed frames, the atmosphere remains intentionally quiet.

For Bratukhin Sergey, authenticity is not a marketing term but a form of discipline. That philosophy became especially important after the rise of smartphone photography and AI-generated imagery. Today almost anyone can produce technically attractive pictures within seconds. But documentary photography, in Bratukhin’s view, still depends on something technology cannot automate: physical presence over time. A generated image can imitate appearance, but it cannot reproduce the trust built through months of human interaction.

Photo Courtesy: Sergey Bratukhin

Why Documentary Photography Matters More Than Ever

Modern audiences consume thousands of images every day, most of which disappear from memory almost instantly. Because of that overload, Sergey believes documentary photography has become more valuable rather than less. Slower visual work creates resistance against constant digital acceleration. It asks viewers to stay with an image longer than social media algorithms normally allow.

That principle defines much of the contemporary Sergey Bratukhin biography as both an artistic and professional trajectory.

Whether photographing migrant communities in the UAE, urban isolation in Europe, or anonymous moments inside large cities, Bratukhin consistently returns to the same central idea: documentary photography is not about proving that something happened. It is about understanding what modern life feels like from inside. And unlike journalism, that understanding cannot be rushed.

Forever Swim Week World Organization Builds a Destination-Based Swim Week Platform

NY Weekly Staff on June 4, 2026

The Largest Swim Week Organization in Europe and the Official Swim Week of Ibiza

Forever Swim Week World Organization has rapidly established itself as one of the influential platforms within the global fashion, tourism, hospitality, and lifestyle industries. Recognized as the largest Swim Week organization in Europe and the official Swim Week of Ibiza, the company is redefining how destination-based Swim Week ecosystems are created, expanded, and experienced worldwide.

Unlike traditional fashion event companies that focus primarily on runway production, Forever Swim Week World Organization was built as a global infrastructure and destination ecosystem platform designed to connect fashion, swimwear, tourism, hospitality, nightlife, media, entertainment, luxury brands, and local businesses into unified multi-day Swim Week experiences.

Photo Courtesy: Forever Swim Week World Organization

Beyond the Runway: A New Era of Destination Swim Weeks

Forever Swim Week World Organization believes that a true Swim Week is far more than a fashion show or a standalone event. A successful Swim Week should function as a complete multi-day ecosystem that activates an entire destination through fashion, tourism, hospitality, entertainment, nightlife, media exposure, and cultural experiences.

This innovative approach transforms Swim Week into a powerful economic and tourism-driving platform capable of generating international visibility and long-term commercial growth for participating destinations. Hotels increase occupancy, restaurants attract international visitors, nightlife venues benefit from increased tourism activity, transportation providers experience additional demand, and local businesses gain exposure through global media coverage and influencer participation.

The organization’s mission is to help destinations build sustainable Swim Week ecosystems that extend beyond fashion and evolve into internationally recognized lifestyle experiences capable of generating recurring tourism and economic impact year after year.

Photo Courtesy: Forever Swim Week World Organization

The Official Swim Week of Ibiza

As the official Swim Week of Ibiza, Forever Swim Week World Organization has positioned itself at the center of one of the world’s iconic luxury lifestyle destinations. Ibiza is internationally recognized for its tourism, hospitality industry, beach culture, entertainment scene, and global audience, making it the ideal location for a world-class Swim Week ecosystem.

By combining runway experiences with hospitality activations, exclusive events, luxury venues, nightlife partnerships, influencer engagement, and international media exposure, the organization has helped elevate Ibiza’s position as one of Europe’s premier Swim Week destinations.

This achievement has further strengthened Forever Swim Week World Organization’s standing as the largest Swim Week organization in Europe while supporting its continued expansion into new international markets.

Building Europe’s Largest Swim Week Ecosystem

Forever Swim Week World Organization operates with a vision that extends far beyond traditional event production. Its objective is to build the largest interconnected Swim Week ecosystem in Europe while establishing a global framework for destination-based Swim Week culture.

The organization collaborates with independent production companies, designers, event organizers, hospitality groups, tourism boards, sponsors, media companies, venues, and local governments to help facilitate internationally recognized Swim Week experiences across multiple regions.

Its expanding international destination network includes major lifestyle and tourism markets such as Tulum, Dubai, Jamaica, Hawaii, Tokyo, and Miami, destinations known for their influence in fashion, luxury travel, tourism, and entertainment.

Through this ecosystem-based model, the organization creates opportunities not only for designers and fashion brands but also for local economies seeking international tourism exposure, investment opportunities, and sustainable growth.

Creating Global Standards for Destination Swim Weeks

One of the organization’s ambitious long-term goals is the creation of international standards and certification systems for Swim Weeks and destination-based fashion ecosystems worldwide.

Forever Swim Week World Organization is currently developing certified destination partnerships, production company certification systems, hospitality and venue partner networks, tourism board collaborations, international expansion programs, and economic impact reporting frameworks designed to measure the value generated through Swim Week ecosystems.

This infrastructure-focused model positions the organization as much more than an event producer. It serves as a global platform designed to support cities, tourism industries, creative communities, hospitality sectors, and international fashion networks at scale.

The Future of Global Swim Week Culture

As fashion, tourism, hospitality, and entertainment continue to merge into a global lifestyle economy, Forever Swim Week World Organization is positioning itself as one of the industry’s innovative and influential organizations.

Its long-term vision is to become the global infrastructure behind destination Swim Week culture, connecting cities, creatives, businesses, tourism leaders, hospitality groups, and international audiences through one unified ecosystem.

With continued expansion across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia, Forever Swim Week World Organization represents a new generation of fashion infrastructure where Swim Week becomes more than an event. It becomes a tourism movement, a business ecosystem, and a global cultural platform.

One World. One Standard. Endless Destinations.

How Josef Brocki Built Evolve Without Outside Investors

NY Weekly Staff on June 4, 2026

By: Jay Kt

At just 25, Josef Brocki stands at the helm of a fast-scaling European education and technology adoption company, Evolve, which has quietly built one of the region’s most closely watched “tech enablement” models without a single euro of external venture capital.

The company has trained more than 8,000 professionals and works with major institutions across Europe. Its clients include Indra Sistemas, a European technology and defense company, along with professionals from Banco Santander, Mapfre, Santa Lucía, Carrefour, and Cabify.

We spoke with Brocki about rejecting venture capital orthodoxy, redefining corporate training, and building a talent pipeline designed for an AI-driven economy where traditional education is increasingly under pressure.

Interview

Q: You built Evolve without raising external capital in a sector where most competitors rely heavily on funding. Why?

Brocki: I strongly believe in organic growth. Most founders today prioritize raising capital first and validating later. I prefer the opposite. I validate demand early with minimal resources and iterate based on reality.

Today, we have tools that make it possible to test markets quickly without large teams or infrastructure, something unthinkable decades ago. My mindset is highly tactical and execution-driven. Venture capital structures, with boards and advisory layers, don’t always translate into better operational decisions.

That said, I don’t see fundraising as negative. It’s simply a different philosophy. Ours has proven that disciplined, bootstrapped growth works. In 2025, we prioritized stability over volume, and we focused on building a sustainable operation. In 2026, we focus on consolidation.

Q: Evolve works with Indra and trains professionals from Santander, Mapfre, and Santa Lucía. How did a young bootstrapped company reach that level?

Brocki: Large enterprises don’t choose providers based on size. They choose based on outcomes.

When you deliver programs where a strong share of participants secure employment or significantly improve their career situation, and when your instructors are actively working with the same technology stacks your clients use, the conversation changes completely.

We don’t compete on price. We compete on the results we can show. That levels the playing field, even for a young company.

Q: You describe Evolve as “Tech Enablement,” not an academy. What’s the operational difference?

Brocki: An academy sells courses. We deliver operational capability.

We don’t say, “Here are ten certified professionals.” We say that within six months, the goal is for a client’s team to operate the technology in real production environments.

That requires a different curriculum, instructors who are active practitioners, and a completely different success metric. If the client’s team cannot execute after the program, we have not done our job.

Our philosophy is simple. We enable evolution through technology with measurable outcomes.

Q: Many of your graduates improve their employment situation. What drives that result?

Brocki: First, our instructors are active professionals. They bring real-world problems, real systems, and real networks.

Second, employability is not marketing. It is a business metric. Our career support team is as important internally as our academic team. We support negotiation skills, career planning, and market positioning in areas where talent is scarce.

Increasingly, companies come to us directly. Hiring managers reach out inbound. That is a strong signal that our reputation in the labor market is consolidating.

Q: What decisions have you made that most competitors would avoid?

Brocki: We maintain an admissions process and waiting list. It does not maximize short-term growth, because we reject applicants who are willing to pay.

But it protects our quality and ultimately our employability outcomes.

We also only work with instructors who are actively employed in industry. That increases cost and complexity, but it ensures everything we teach reflects what companies actually need today.

For us, that is non-negotiable.

Q: AI is evolving faster than traditional education systems can adapt. How do you design programs in that environment?

Brocki: We don’t teach tools. We teach the ability to operate tools that don’t exist yet.

A professional who understands how language models are built, trained, and evaluated can adapt to future systems. Someone who only learns a specific interface cannot.

That’s why our curriculum is continuously updated with active practitioners who see market needs in real time. If they stop working in the industry, they stop being relevant to what we teach.

Q: What has been your hardest lesson as a founder?

Brocki: Managing uncertainty without losing focus.

It’s easy to open too many fronts before consolidating what you already have. Discipline matters. Surrounding yourself with people who are direct, ambitious, and honest matters even more.

And you must stay adaptable. Discipline should never become rigidity.

Q: Why did you create WEvolve alongside commercial operations?

Brocki: Through WEvolve, which works with organizations such as the Ronald McDonald House Charities, we believe there is a responsibility to extend access to opportunity.

Some people are not born into environments that give them access to technology or education. That is not their choice.

We are not an NGO. We operate as a for-profit company because we believe that is how we maximize impact. The stronger we are commercially, the more we can reinvest into transformation.

Money is not the objective. It is a consequence.

Q: If a CTO of a large enterprise is considering Evolve, what should they know?

Brocki: The right fit is when a company needs its teams to operate in AI, data, or cloud environments within six months and retain that capability internally.

We start by understanding business KPIs. Then we identify the capability gap. What we focus on is not a certificate, but improvement in operational execution that the client can assess before and after the program.

Q: How do experienced professionals with 20+ years in the industry end up joining your programs?

Brocki: They don’t come because they lack knowledge. They come because their industry is changing faster than ever.

AI is redefining what it means to work in data, security, and technology. Senior professionals see that shift early. They join us to stay close to practitioners working with today’s and tomorrow’s systems and to accelerate their adaptation.

Q: Where do you want Evolve to be in five years?

Brocki: I don’t think in rigid five-year predictions. The environment changes too quickly.

What matters to me is staying disciplined, improving based on what we’ve already learned, and not losing direction.

If we maintain that focus and adaptability, growth becomes a natural outcome.

Hughes Medor on How Reliability Builds Results for Successful Gyms

NY Weekly Staff on June 4, 2026

By: William Jones

Fitness performance is often measured in reps, time, and results. According to Hughes Medor, founder of Medor Fitness Supply and Services LLC, behind every successful workout is equipment that works consistently and without interruption.

“Even people break down sometimes,” Medor says. “Equipment is no different. The difference is how quickly and efficiently you respond to it.”

With more than three decades of hands-on experience, Medor says his journey into fitness equipment was shaped by a lifelong instinct. “I have always had a knack for fixing things,” he says. That instinct, he adds, shaped his early career in the sporting goods sector before leading him into fitness technology.

According to Medor, after 14 years working within a fitness technology company, he stepped away to build something of his own. He spent time working in home improvement, refining both his technical and business skills. About 20 years ago, he says he returned to the field of fitness with a clear vision and began building Medor Fitness Supply and Services, formerly known as Kingdom Fitness Supply & Service.

Within the first year of operations, Medor brought his son, Alex Medor, into the business. Over the past 19 years, he says he has trained Alex in the technical and moral aspects of the trade. “Today, I handle the inside of the business, and Alex handles the outside,” Medor explains. “I see myself as the dispatcher, making sure everything flows. He is out there delivering the service.”

He adds that the skills required for this field of work cannot be taught. They are developed over time through experience and instinct. “A lot of this is inherent. You learn it by doing it,” he adds.

For Medor, his partnership with his son has supported steady growth, driven almost entirely by word of mouth over the past two decades. That, he says, is a direct reflection of a client-first philosophy that has guided every stage of the business. “If you take care of people, they take care of you,” he says. “That is what this business is built on.”

As the fitness industry continues to evolve, the technical demands placed on service providers are increasing. Modern equipment is more advanced, often integrating digital interfaces, connectivity, and sophisticated performance tracking systems.

For Medor, this shift reinforces the importance of adaptability. “You have to keep your mind open,” he says. “The industry changes, and you have to grow with it. That is what I have done for the last three decades, and that is what I will keep doing.”

One of Medor’s long-term goals is to establish a dedicated facility that would serve as a central hub for operations. “I would like to have our own building with a warehouse, a space where we can manage inventory, handle larger projects, and continue to expand what we offer,” he says. For him, this vision reflects his broader ambition to strengthen the company’s infrastructure while maintaining the personalized service that has defined its reputation.

According to Medor, his story is one of persistence, adaptability, and an unwavering commitment to quality. From his early days learning to fix equipment to building a business that supports the daily operations of fitness facilities, he says he has remained guided by the simple principle of doing the work well and taking care of the people who depend on it.

He says, “At the end of the day, if your equipment works, your business works. And if your business works, everything else follows.”

Summary: With three decades in fitness equipment service, Hughes Medor says reliability, relationships, and consistent care are what keep the fitness industry moving.

Five Generations at Work? How Smart Leaders Make It Work

NY Weekly Staff on June 4, 2026

By Clark Lowe, President & CEO — O’Connor Company

Think back to the old one-room schoolhouse when the bell would ring, and students of a dozen different ages would settle on long benches. Today’s workplace is that schoolhouse, with traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z sharing one room. Each brings a different rhythm and a different reason to show up.

We all grow up differently, and those experiences shape how we prefer to work. Think about how older employees often value structure and rules, while younger workers tend to look for learning and feedback. The ways we want to communicate with each other differ as well. Many Baby Boomers appreciate face‑to‑face and email interaction, whereas Millennials and Gen Z lean toward the speed of collaborative tools.

My advice is simple: employ clarity and autonomy in your leadership. These two ingredients will turn your team’s differences into complementary strengths.

Diversity Becomes Power When Paired With Clarity And Autonomy

Start with clarity. It helps you align your team, which is why smart leaders make team goals and deadlines concrete. When everyone is clear on the “what” and “when” behind a project, they can pull in the same direction. That’s true even if they have different “whys.”

A high level of clarity sets the stage for successful autonomy. Autonomy is the key. It frees you to respect each person’s expertise. Some team members will want to rely on proven methods, and others will suggest a new tool. Both can contribute when the outcome is fixed, but the method remains flexible. If you can resist dictating the details, you’ll invite experience to meet innovation. The result is powerful.

Leaders Who Create Self‑regulated Teams Empower Everyone, No Matter What The Generation

The leadership that encourages self-regulated teams blends clear direction with trust. You set the destination, and your team charts the route. In other words, you don’t tell your people exactly how to do every task, but you define exactly what success will look like.

Clear outcomes and guardrails are critical in this approach, so start by describing what the completed project will look like in plain language with measurable criteria. Spell out deadlines and safety rules, and be clear about compliance requirements and budget constraints, since these standards won’t move.

Now, your team is ready for autonomy. Give them control over the tools and methods they will use, but take care not to micromanage their schedules while staying involved. Instead, use short feedback loops and quick check‑ins to spot issues early and celebrate progress.

The final ingredient is shared accountability. Remember, everyone owns the outcome, so make the results visible to the team. Share both wins and lessons together. Don’t hide them away in a file.

Self‑regulated Leadership Respects Everyone’s Differences

This approach is flexible. It allows you to protect diversity without creating separate rules for everyone.

Take the Traditionalists. They tend to value respect, stability, clear roles, and proven standards. Guardrails and documented outcomes provide the structure they trust, and autonomy honors their expertise and craft.

Similarly, Baby Boomers appreciate consistency and clear goals. They take accountability and want recognition for their experience. The self-regulation model’s outcome agreements make targets concrete, and its visible metrics reward their reliability, so they can use trusted methods as long as they meet the standard.

By comparison, Gen X wants efficiency and minimal micromanagement. Their ideal workplace environment offers independence and work‑life balance. High autonomy and short check‑ins let them deliver results without constant oversight.

Additionally, Millennials tend to prioritize collaboration and purpose. They want continuous learning and frequent feedback, which is why they love how team‑owned goals and quick feedback loops create learning in the flow of work and connect daily tasks to impact.

Lastly, Gen Z thrives with the flexibility to experiment, but they need the speed of digital tools. On a self-regulated team, the freedom to test approaches within guardrails and obtain rapid feedback feeds their pace and curiosity, allowing them to introduce new tools if they meet the outcome.

Self-regulated teams allow all employees to give their best. Structure without micromanagement supports those who prefer clarity and standards. Autonomy with fast learning satisfies those who prefer agency and growth. Everyone wins.

What Field‑based Industries Like Construction Teach About Teamwork

To learn more about this approach, spend a day with a construction crew. After all, field‑based industries don’t have the luxury of abstract alignment.

Each morning, crews start with a huddle. These “toolbox talks” align everyone on scope, hazards, roles, and handoffs. That clarity creates space for autonomy because everyone knows the plan and their role in it.

On every job site, we keep standards visible. Safety rules and quality specs are clearly posted, and that shared reference dissolves arguments about style. You can do it your way, as long as it meets the spec.

This sector naturally pairs well with on-the-job learning. Apprentices stand shoulder‑to‑shoulder with journeymen. Younger workers absorb the tricks of the trade that no one finds in an online search. They, in turn, introduce time-saving tech like mobile punch lists or photo documentation. Knowledge flows in both directions.

We debrief the process, not the person. When something goes wrong, the conversation changes from “who messed up?” to “what in our system allowed this?” It preserves respect and fuels improvement.

We celebrate each day’s win. Field crews bond around concrete milestones. When we’re able to pour before a storm or pass an inspection, those victories build trust.

The takeaway? Don’t force uniformity. Build unity. Apply clarity and autonomy, and let your diverse workforce do the rest.

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