National Poetry Month Celebration

ChicagoPoetry.com is holding a National Poetry Month celebration featuring over 30 poets at Mercury Cafe. Their usual $10 admission fee will be waived at this event as a thank you to all of those who have contributed to the organization and helped keep it running. It's free for everyone! 6-10pm at 1505 W. Chicago Ave. Call 773-539-1276 for more information.

Trapeze for Beginners Workshop

The newly opened Aloft Loft offers classes in trapeze, aerial dance technique, stilt dancing and other circus techniques. A two day introduction to trapeze is designed to get you up in the air in no time flat. The class fee is $65; no prior experience is necessary. Today and tomorrow, from 10:30am to 12pm. For more information or to register, contact Shayna Swanson at aloftaerialdance@yahoo.com

Do-It-Yourself Marketing and Publicity for Artists @ Links Hall

Sarah Best’s three-hour workshop discusses the skills required to promote artistic projects. $30, 3435 N. Sheffield Ave. For more information, call 773-281-0824 or visit the website.

"Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome" @ DuSable Museum

Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary, a Baha'i and lifelong proponent of racial justice and equality, will be speaking at the DuSable Museum about her newly-released book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Dr. Leary’s workshops go far beyond the topic of cultural sensitivity--she provides specialized clinical work in areas of mental health and ecological resilience. Lecture begins at 2pm, admission is free for members and $10 for nonmembers. More info on DuSable's website.

Logan Square Attic Show

See site specific work in an attic of a house in Logan Square (1732 N Humboldt Blvd), including Synch, a Busby Berkeley inspired synchronized swimming duo and Laura's Room, a video installation based on Twin Peaks. Dancer/choreographer Janet Schmid does The Solo Siamese Twin Act using prosthetic attachments and soundscapes and moving within a confined space. This evening at 7:30 and 9pm; suggested donation is $7. For more information call 773-531-2518.

Opening: Nick Cave: Soundsuits @ Cultural Center

This exhibit presents Chicago artist Nick Cave's sculptural soundsuits--elaborate full-body costumes made of metal, plastic, fiber, and found objects. The exhibit also includes a video of Cave using the suits in performance. Through 9 July, in the Sidney R. Yates Gallery. Free. 78 E Washington Street. For more information, call 312-744-6630 or visit the website.

Version >06: Urban Gardening & Exterior Decorating

Version is an annual festival focusing on emerging art, technology and social activism, running through May 7. Admission to events is accepted at the door, but you can also purchase a $25 event pass that covers entry fees to all screening and events or a $50 Version pass that allows you entrances to all events and programs, as well as food and various goodies. Call 773-837-0145 for more information.

Tonight's Urban Gardening and Exterior Decorating show explores how artists can "create charged public space" and how urban environments can "become areas for personal and ideological transformations." There will also be workshops on DIY publishing, silk screening and live drawing/illustrating duels. The exhibition will continue every Saturday and Sunday through May 7. The opening tonight is from 5pm-2am at Iron Studios, 3636 S. Iron St. 4th floor. $10.

Global Warming Panel

As part of its series of presentations on climate change, the Adler Planetarium presents a discussion of how human activities impact the earth’s energy, water, and carbon cycles. Though it's organized by the Planetarium, this event takes place at Northwestern University’s Hughes Auditorium, 303 E. Superior Ave. At 10 AM, free, but register online.

Drink Organic Wine For Earth Day

Andersonville wine shop In Fine Spirits wants you to taste the best organic vino that Mother Earth has to give...for free. Wine tastings run from 3-6pm today and will feature a slew of organic wines for your taste buds to savor. Wines include: Albet i Noya Xarello, Sobon Estate Viognier, Brooks Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, Nevada County Wine Guild Daily Red and Saint Peter's Organic English Ale. In Fine Spirits is located at 5418 N. Clark Street, call them up at (773) 506-WINE.

My Name Is Will @ Newberry Library

The Shakespeare Project of Chicago presents a musical celebration of Shakespeare’s sonnets and songs this morning at 10 AM. Free. 60 W. Walton St. For more information, call 312-255-3700 or visit the website.

WEIGHTS @ MCA

After being shot and blinded in a bar in Hollywood at the age of twenty-three, Lynn Manning became an award winning playwright and actor, Paralympic Silver Medalist, and Blind Judo World Champion. He tells his story this evening through words and music. See WEIGHTS at 7:30pm at the MCA (220 E Michigan). Tickets are $22. For more information, call 312-397-4010 or visit the website. Presented as part of the Chicago Festival of Disability Arts and Culture.

Liason Deux (Chicago Tap Theatre)

The Chicago Tap Theatre hosts the Tapage ensemble of Toulouse, France for this performance at the Harold Washington Library Auditorium, 400 South State Street. 8 PM; tickets available here; call 773-655-1175.

Donate Your Old Bike

If this is the year you get yourself the bike you’ve been ogling, why not donate your old one for a good cause? While you’re at it, you’ll get a head start on your charitable tax deductions for 2006. The Working Bikes Cooperative is collecting unwanted bicycles today between 9 AM and 3 PM at Cypress Cove Water Park, 83rd St. and Janes Ave., Woodridge. For more information, call Chet Szerlag at (630) 910-0597 or visit the website.

Antiques and Garden Fair @ Chicago Botanic Garden

Need a decorative trellis for your garden? Planning a pergola or a gazebo? Looking for a birdbath? You may want to check out this fair, which features more than a hundred vendors offering a wide range of both antique and new objects for decorating your yard. The fair runs through Sunday, opening at 10 AM daily, and the cost is $15 for a 3-day pass, which you can purchase online. For more information, call 847-835-8326 or visit the website.