MAY
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30 SATURDAY After a tour of the country in the late 1800s, piano virtuoso William Hall Sherwood made it his life’s mission to make classical music accessible to the great unwashed. In 1897 he founded the Sherwood Conservatory of Music, which has offered lessons, performances, and community services to Chicagoans ever since. The conservatory, which is moving into a new facility down the street from its current digs, is selling off 100 years’ worth of furniture, art, and other stuff this weekend; the goods include 19th-century Japanese wood-block prints, Edwardian music cupboards, and carved walnut chairs. The sale runs from 10 to 5 today and 12 to 4 tomorrow at the conservatory, 1014 S. Michigan. Admission is free. Call 312-951-9800.
31 SUNDAY The International Union of Socialist Youth’s platform sounds familiar: they stand for peace, a clean and safe environment, the right to an education, and equitable economic development, among other things. Now they’re trying to resurrect an international socialist movement. That’s the focus of this weekend’s Globalization From Below Conference, which started on Saturday. Representatives from Mexico’s Party of the Democratic Revolution, the European Community Organization of Socialist Youth, Global Exchange, and others will lead workshops on topics like consumer issues, union organizing strategy, and international labor support to get the worldwide ball rolling. It’s from 10 to 6 today at the University of Chicago’s Biological Sciences Learning Center, 924 E. 57th. The suggested registration donation is $20 ($10 if you preregister), $15 for students. Call 773-955-6371, ext. 1, for a complete schedule.
4 THURSDAY In 1928 Virginia Woolf published Orlando, a whimsical meditation on androgyny. Six years ago the tale of a 17th-century gender-transforming aristocrat who never dies was made into a movie, a production that Reader critic Jonathan Rosenbaum called “a film with practically no ideas.” Perhaps the Piven Theatre Workshop–the starting point for John and Joan Cusack and Lili Taylor–can do a better job with its theater adaptation, which runs through June 28. If nothing else you might get to enjoy the work of tomorrow’s hot property in person. Orlando opens tonight at 8 at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes in Evanston. It’s $17, $10 for students. Call 847-866-6597, ext. 3, for reservations.
