9 FRIDAY Local dancer and choreographer Melissa Thodos is a twin, and in July she gave birth to her own set of twin girls. She’s incorporated their voices and fetal heartbeats into the soundscape for her new ensemble piece, Lossfound, “an exploration of the cycle of life.” It premieres at this weekend’s performances by Melissa Thodos & Dancers, tonight and tomorrow at 8 and Sunday at 2 at the Harold Washington Library Auditorium, 400 S. State (Plymouth Court entrance). Tickets are $25, $20 for students and seniors. Call 773-404-6871.
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10 SATURDAY Thursday, March 8, was International Women’s Day, but that hasn’t stopped organizers from putting together today’s IWD conference, with workshops covering everything from racism in the LGBT community to emergency contraception to the effects of globalization on women. The opening plenary session runs from 9:45 to 10:45 and features Indian film star Nandita Das, Student Labor Action activist Migdalia Jiminez, and Toni Bond from the Chicago Abortion Fund and African-American Women Evolving. The conference is from 9 to 6 on the eighth floor of the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson. Suggested donation is $5; call 773-728-1969 or 312-805-1503 for more information. There will be an unrelated IWD fund-raiser for a new women’s group, Sisters Organizing for a United Leadership (SOUL), today from 11 to 3 at HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo. It includes a fashion show, music, dance, poetry, food, and a silent auction and is open to women and girls only. The suggested donation is $20, $10 for teens, and it’s free for kids (child care will be provided). Call 773-278-6706 for more.
A conceptual fusion of “permanent agriculture” and “permanent culture,” the term “permaculture” was coined in 1978 by Australian ecologist Bill Mollison and his student David Holmgren. A holistic design movement that aims to create sustainable living environments integrating human dwellings with plants, animals, and the land, it’s mostly been attempted in rural areas, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work in the city. “We might take a stab at creating an urban demonstration of permaculture design…if the group is interested in going that direction,” says Serenity Wehrenberg, organizer of tonight’s free permaculture discussion group. It’s at 7:30 at the Catholic Worker House, 4652 N. Kenmore; call 773-761-6796.
When Nathaniel Kleitman came to the University of Chicago in the 1920s, the scientific community dismissed sleep as a state of dormancy. Convinced it was something more, Kleitman established the world’s first sleep laboratory on the Hyde Park campus and used himself as a guinea pig. He once kept himself awake for 180 hours to study the effects of sleep deprivation. Later he spent more than a month in Mammoth Cave, free from the influences of sunlight and daily schedules. In 1953 he and a student discovered rapid eye movement (REM). With similar self-reflection, author Bill Hayes weaves his own experiences as a lifelong insomniac into Sleep Demons, a book that also tackles Kleitman and the history of sleep research, disorders like sleepwalking and narcolepsy, the marketing of the waterbed, and living in San Francisco during the onset of the AIDS crisis. Hayes will discuss his book tonight at 7:30 at Borders Books & Music, 2817 N. Clark (773-935-3909); it’s free. He’ll also appear Friday, March 16, at Barbara’s Bookstore, 1100 Lake, Oak Park (708-848-9140).
