What to do in Madison this week: Kelsey Miles, 'Birds and People' and more Isthmus Picks

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Christie Tirado, March 10-April 4, Tandem Press; reception March 14, 5-8 p.m.: In the exhibition “Grabando Historias,” UW-Madison master of fine arts candidate Christie Tirado focuses on the stories of immigrant families. The history captured in her prints is both personal (her parents immigrated from Mexico) and drawn from the Mexican diaspora.

UW-Madison poetry MFA graduates reading, Monday, March 10, Central Library, 7 p.m.: This is truly a night of significant future voices: This year’s graduates from UW-Madison’s masters of fine arts program in poetry will read from their work. Jonny Teklit has already been published in The New Yorker, and is working on a first book. Maryhilda Obasiota Ibe has won the American Literary Review Poetry Prize and the Bloomsday Poetry Prize. Iqra Khan is already a lawyer as well as a poet. Patrycja Humienik’s We Contain Landscapes is forthcoming with Tin House this month. juj e. lepe and Andrew Chi Keong Yim have many publications and forthcoming publications to their credit. This celebration of their wide-ranging work is presented by the Wisconsin Book Festival and the UW-Madison Program in Creative Writing.

Harry Whitehorse International Wood Sculpture Exhibit, through June 30, Garver Feed Mill and Olbrich Gardens: If you missed the inaugural Harry Whitehorse International Wood Sculpture Festival in June at the San Damiano grounds, you still have a chance to see the amazing large scale wood sculptures the invited artists created over the course of the festival. Eleven artists carved inventive takes on the theme of nature and the environment, and they are available for viewing at Garver Feed Mill and Olbrich Botanical Gardens. The festival honors the late Harry Whitehorse, a Madison-area and Ho-Chunk sculptor whose own works are part of our public art landscape. More info at olbrich.org.

Kelsey Miles, Tuesday, March 11, Bur Oak, 7 p.m.: Lots of people have moved to Madison for school and stayed a while. But there’s only one who earned a doctorate in chemistry and stayed a while to make music (before moving to Kansas City in 2023). Kelsey Miles uses the same curiosity in her songwriting that served her well in the lab. Blending blues, Americana and rock — with an emphasis on the blues (she’s an accomplished harp player) — Miles can shout and command on stage in the tradition of Bonnie Raitt and Bessie Smith. Tickets at theburoakmadison.com.

Meghan O'Gieblyn, Wednesday, March 12, UW Elvehjem Building-Room L140, 5:30 p.m.: Essayist Meghan O’Gieblyn wrote about her fundamentalist Christian upbringing and her leaving the faith in her debut collection, Interior States, In her nonfiction book God, Human, Animal, Machine, she explored how AI might lead humans to a different kind of transcendence. In this Humanities Without Borders lecture, O’Gieblyn asks, what is the point of thinking? Her talk, “Automated Thought: The Life of the Mind in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” should interest just about anyone with, you know, the OG kind of intelligence. More info at humanities.wisc.edu.

Birds and People, Wednesday, March 12, Overture Center-Playhouse, 7 p.m.: Do you remember the name Christian Cooper? He’s the host of The Extraordinary Birder on NatGeo and author of Better Living Through Birding. But his name rose to prominence in what became known as The Central Park Birdwatching Incident early on in the pandemic. In May 2020, Cooper, who is Black, asked a white woman to leash her unleashed dog in the park. She called 9-1-1. While the racism that the “incident” exposed is shameful, the good news is that it brought positive attention to birding and a discussion of inclusion in such pastimes. Cooper will talk about his forthcoming book, The Urban Owls: How Flaco and Friends Made the City Their Home, and he and Black Oxygen podcast host Angela Russell will discuss the power of birds in connecting people, communities, and nature. It’s all part of a bird-focused spring at the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tickets at overture.org.

Curtis Sittenfeld, Wednesday, March 12, Central Library, 7 p.m.: Curtis Sittenfeld is perhaps best known for her beloved debut novel, Prep, a classic among American prep-school coming-of-age tales. But she’s also penned the insightful novel American Wife, loosely based on first lady Laura Bush, and a smart collection of short fiction, You Think it, I’ll Say It. She comes to this Wisconsin Book Festival event to promote her second collection of short stories, Show Don’t Tell, which might be her strongest yet. She’ll be in conversation with Madison’s own Susanna Daniel, author of Sea Creatures and co-founder of the Madison Writers' Studio.

Wild & Witty: A Nature-Themed Trivia Night, Thursday, March 13, Lussier Family Heritage Center, 6:30 p.m.: Q: Which Dane County Parks allow horseback riding? A: That’s for us to know and you to find out! Break out of your trivia rut with this fundraiser for Dane County Parks, which make Dane County one of the best places to live. Teams (of up to 6 people) or solo trivia-sters are welcome to compete by answering questions in such categories as Wildlife Wonders, Dane County Parks, What's in the Water, and Conserving our Natural Resources. Registration is required and child care is available. See more details and register at lussierheritagecenter.com.

Terell Stafford + UW Ensembles, March 13-14, Hamel Music Center-Collins Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.: Trumpet player and composer Terell Stafford has remained a stellar and prolific presence in the national jazz scene since his days in saxophonist Bobby Watson’s Horizon in the 1990s. These days he’s a member of the Village Vanguard Orchestra, director of the Jazz Studies department at Temple University, and an in-demand clinician. (And somehow still finding time to write and record albums as a leader, like the sprightly 2023 outing Between Two Worlds.) His residency with the Jazz Studies program at UW-Madison includes a pair of public concerts, accompanied by Graduate Jazz Quintet and Contemporary Jazz Ensemble on March 13, and by Jazz Orchestra and Faculty Jazz Group on March 14. Find tickets at artsticketing.wisc.edu.

Scammed! March 13-24, TNW Ensemble Theater: Thousands of people daily in the United States get conned by pros. What if someone decided to give the con artists a taste of their own medicine? That’s the premise of Scammed!, a new play written by TNW Ensemble Theater co-founder Danielle Dresden. Performances are at the theater at 7:30 p.m. on March 13-14 and 21-22 and 2:30 p.m. on March 16 and 22-23. Tickets at tickettailor.com.

They All Stay With You: scenes from Anthropocenean life, through March 16, Broom Street Theater: If you haven’t noticed the increase in dystopian/fantasy fiction, you are not, as they say, paying attention. Now, dystopian/fantasy theater comes our way with Josh Drimmer’s They All Stay With You: scenes from Anthropocenean life, directed by BST artistic director Maria Dahman. The scene: human beings are on their way to becoming extinct, but we are apparently still insisting that our offspring attend virtual school. Drimmer describes the play as a “post-climate change horror-comedy” with supernatural elements that lend it a “whimsical and sometimes unhinged” feeling. Relatable. Performances are Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Ticket info at bstonline.org.

Find the individual Picks collected here, and as part of the full calendar of events.