lit/lectures Chicago Humanities Festival
The cheapest liberal arts education, ever: Speakers on this year’s theme, the body, include the U of I prof Paula Treichler on the history of the condom; a panel of foreign correspondents on how their countrymen see the US, moderated by The Washington Post’s Peter Slevin; Kenneth Roth, the director of Human Rights Watch; and the basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And that’s just week one.
GO: CHF runs Nov 2­–14. Prices and locations vary; full schedule: chicagohumanities.org

theatre Comme Toujours Here I Stand
Also part of CHF, but worth a special callout: The inventive New York–based Big Dance Theater moves to a metatheatrical beat as it reinvents Agnès Varda’s classic French New Wave flick Cleo from 5 to 7 in a performance combining dance, an original song by Robyn Hitchcock, and film footage. Nerd alert: Here’s hoping the latter includes the movie’s opening title sequence, one of the greatest (in Chicago Guide’s humble opinion) of all time.
GO: Nov 4, 6 at 7:30; Nov 7 at 3. $10–$28. Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E Chicago. mcachicago.org

ALSO THIS WEEK: In film: Eyeworks, a festival of experimental animation cocurated by the lovely and talented Lilli Carré, flickers to life Nov 6; plus, Reeling 2010, the world’s second-oldest lesbian and gay film fest, gets rolling on local screens Nov 4, and candidates for the Golden Teeth Award begin screening Nov 5 as part of the annual Polish Film Festival in America.

theatre Kid Sister
Oh, the horrors American Idol hath wrought—and we’re not even talking about Sanjaya. In this dark comedy by Will Kern (Hellcab), Allison Torem (Trust—the play, not the film) stars as a 19-year-old baby mama with dreams of rock stardom and a dubious handle on basic human decency.
GO: Previews Nov 4–11; $15. Run continues through Dec 19; $30­­–$35. Profiles Theatre, 4147 N Broadway. profilestheatre.org

classical Michael Tilson Thomas
You down with MTT? You should be. Thomas, who nabbed a 2009 National Medal of Arts from President Obama, leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a bill involving two more great Americans: the 33-year-old organist Paul Jacobs playing Aaron Copland’s Organ Symphony. Consider it a joyfully noisy sendoff to midterm election season.
GO: Nov 4–6 at 8. $28–$239. Symphony Center, 220 S Michigan. cso.org

concerts Junip
Word on the street is snow—You remember snow, don’t you? You just put your lips together and curse—is in the forecast this week. If, like us, you need a reminder that winter is not all frostbite and humbugs, be sure to catch this band, a side project from the singer-songwriter José González, who manages to write funky and cheerful melodies from his frozen homebase of Sweden.
GO: Nov 6 at 10. $15. Lincoln Hall, 2424 N Lincoln. lincolnhallchicago.com

ALSO THIS WEEK: Jake Shimabukuro, whose stunning covers of everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Michael Jackson are the main reason the ukulele is suddenly back in style, plays the Old Town School of Folk Music on Nov 6.