The Ten

Don’t-miss picks for May 3 through May 9, 2018

1 Hayley Kiyoko

Pop:“I will be that person that I was afraid to be,” Kiyoko told BuzzFeed earlier this year. Nicknamed “Lesbian Jesus” by her fervent and devoted fans, the 27-year-old recently released Expectations, her debut album, which largely explores what it means to be a queer young woman. After years of false starts, misguided girl groups, and childhood acting on such channels as Nickelodeon, Kiyoko has finally come into her own as a loud, proud, and one-of-a-kind artist unafraid to challenge our ideas of what a pop star should look and sound like.
5/3 at 5:30 p.m. $42–$55. House of Blues. livenation.com

2 Winifred Haun & Dancers

Dance:In 2017, choreographer Haun and Australian circus artist Emma Serjeant developed Trashed, which combined modern dance and circus arts in a piece that used trash as a metaphor for a cluttered and chaotic world. The work was previously performed at Aloft Circus Arts, and Haun now revives it for the cozy Hamlin Park Theater and shares the bill with the New York–based company BodyStories, led by critically acclaimed choreographer Teresa Fellion.
5/3–4. $16–$25. Hamlin Park Theater. brownpapertickets.com

3 Columbinus

Theater:The Yard, a local youth theater project that grew out of a program at Senn High School in Edgewater, makes the leap to Steppenwolf’s stage for a production of Columbinus, the United States Theatre Project’s play that mixes original writing with reported material from people who experienced the Columbine High School shooting firsthand.
5/3–26. $15–$25. Steppenwolf Theatre. steppenwolf.org

4 SAIC Fashion

Design:The season’s premier fashion show features up-and-coming designers from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. But here the clothes are more like conceptual art statements about the times we live in. If you can’t score an invite to the exclusive evening runway show, featuring senior-year student work, select couture garments in the sophomore- and junior-year programs will be exhibited beforehand.
FREE 5/4 at 9 a.m. Venue Six10. saic.edu

5 Emily Stein

Dance:A world-class teacher, Stein continues her investigation of ballet imagery, traditions, and technique, remixed for the modern-day dancer. In the fifth installment of her concert series, Secret Experiments in Ballet #5: The Godmothers, she draws specifically from the Fairy Godmother character in the 1890 ballet Sleeping Beauty and radically retools the original choreography.
5/4–6 at 7:30 p.m. $15–$20. Dovetail Studios. emilysteindance.com

6 Chicago Critics Film Festival

Film:Entering its sixth year, Chicago’s most underrated film festival has brought tomorrow’s indie darlings to the hallowed halls of the Music Box. The flicks in this fest have yet to see wide release, but most eventually will. The meta–heist thriller American Animals and true-crime docudrama Forever ‘B’ look especially promising.
5/4–10. $12–$150. Music Box Theatre. chicagocriticsfilmfestival.com

7 Polish Constitution Day Parade

Parade:On May 3, 1791, Poland became the first European country to forge a constitutional democracy. And naturally, Chicago puts on an annual parade to honor this. Expect more Polish pride—not to mention floats and festivities—than you can shake a kielbasa at.
FREE 5/5 at 11:30 a.m. Columbus from Balbo to Monroe. cityofchicago.org

8 William Ferris Chorale

New Music:Continuing its legacy as a champion of mellifluous yet utterly modern new choral music, this chamber choir presents a program called A Stiller Day: Songs of War and Peace under guest conductor Carling FitzSimmons (longtime director Paul French left at the end of 2016). Selections include work by local compositional butterfly Stacy Garrop and a new commission by the Minnesota composer Victoria Malawey.
5/5 at 7 p.m. $25-$30. Our Lady of Mount Carmel. williamferrischorale.org

9 Tang Chang

Art:Little known outside his home country of Thailand, Chang, who died in 1990, was one of his nation’s first modern painters, ditching traditional brushes and easels for explosive abstract compositions, often made directly with his hands. This solo exhibition of his work, the first outside Thailand, brings together many rare objects, including his experimental poems, now translated.
FREE 5/7–8/5. Smart Museum of Art. smartmuseum.uchicago.edu

10 Alice Glass

Rock:“People who put themselves out there, no matter the genre, inspire me,” said Glass, the former lead singer of the synth-rock group Crystal Castles, in a recent story in Interview magazine. In 2017, the musician opened up to fans about her traumatic experiences with her ex-partner and bandmate in response to the growing #MeToo movement. For Glass, her vulnerability and personal growth power the music on her self-titled EP, released last year.
5/9 at 9 p.m. $20. Bottom Lounge. ticketweb.com