What to do in Madison this week: Jacob Kushner, 'Majeska Mondays' and more Isthmus Picks

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Majeska Mondays 50th edition, Monday, May 13, Up North Bar, 5:30 p.m.: Ben Majeska is a fun musician to hang out with, and bands have been doing so at these jammy sessions at the Up North for 49 Mondays now. Celebrate the 50th Majeska Mondays with three bands: Wonderfunk, Harder Deeper and Big Country. Read Andy Moore’s article here.

From Fiber to Hand, through June 13, Textile Arts Center: The new Textile Arts Center features "From Fiber to Hand," curated by UW-Madison papermaker Veronica Pham. The exhibit explores fiber in many different forms, including weaving, sewn objects, paper, basketry and even netting. Featured are UW students and recent alumni Esther Cho, Kate Forer, Heather Kohlmeier, Kate Morrick, Sam Northcut, Hannah O’Hare Bennett, Veronica Pham, Maia Rauh, Noa Rickey, Ava Schueller, Annmarie Suglio and Edward Xiong. The TAC is at 2436 Pennsylvania Ave.; regular hours are from noon-4 p.m. Thursdays and from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays, through June 13.

Biitchseat, Monday, May 13, The Rigby, 7 p.m.: The songs on Cleveland rock quartet Biitchseat’s 2022 album, Float, are glimmery and shimmery, crunchy and cathartic. The album overall stands as a musical elegy to pandemic feels, processing that dark time into effervescent, catchy pop. This stacked Monday bill also includes Milwaukee emo rockers Barely Civil, and Madison rock bands Muscle Memory and Raddish.

Jacob Kushner, Tuesday, May 14, A Room of One’s Own, 6 p.m.: Jacob Kushner — an international journalist who got his start in Madison writing for The Daily Cardinal, La Comunidad News, Wisconsin State Journal and Wisconsin Watch — is promoting his important new book, Look Away: A True Story of Murders, Bombings, and a Far-Right Campaign to Rid Germany of Immigrants. The book reveals how a group of young Germans carried out a shocking spree of white supremacist violence, and how a nation and its government ignored them until it was too late. Kushner, who returned to Madison in 2023 to teach courses on international reporting and migration, will be joined in conversation by Stephanie Janeth Salgado Altamirano, the Madison Community Organizer for Voces de la Frontera, an organization committed to intersectional understanding of advocacy for immigrants rights and youth.

Sarah Morris, Tuesday, May 14, Bur Oak, 7:30 p.m.: Minneapolis singer-songwriter Sarah Morris’ newest album, Here’s to You, rambles closer to country than any of her previous projects. There’s a Midwestern precision in her arrangements but it never holds back a loose, freedom of spirit in her singing. In the new record’s title track, her voice meanders up and down the emotional slopes of her story songs like a happy child. Slide guitarist Mike Munson opens. Tickets at seetickets.us.

Bluegrass Jam, Wednesdays, Harmony Bar, 1 p.m.: You don’t have to be of retirement age to join in but some of the regulars have, in fact, dubbed this weekly Wednesday afternoon jam at the Harmony “Old and In the Way.” That said, the welcoming bluegrass veterans know a ton of traditional numbers — both popular and obscure. Bring your instrument or just pull up a chair and sit a spell. Watch for schedule updates at harmonybarandgrill.com.

Driftless Prairie Visions, through June 30, UW Arboretum Visitor Center: This is no ordinary group show. The Prairie Imaginarium brought together five artists to focus on phenology at a restored 10-acre prairie in Sauk County. Notes on bloom times, number of species, and related data went into multimedia works of art by Jill Metcoff, Gigi La Budde, Karen Ellzey Wright, Peggy Timmerman, Joni Graves. If you need some special reason to go to the Arb this time of year (who are you, even?) this is it.

John Garcia, Wednesday, May 15, High Noon Saloon, 7:30 p.m.: As the singer of Kyuss, John Garcia helped pioneer the heavy, trippy guitar rock sound that bubbled up through the underground in the late 1980s and '90s (a sound eventually celebrated and/or saddled with the genre tag “stoner rock”). After Kyuss broke up in 1995, Garcia was a member of Slo Burn and Hermano, and the music of all three bands will be highlighted on this tour stop. The concert may be the hard rock bargain of the year as the entire lineup are headliners in their own right: wild blues rock duo Left Lane Cruiser (on tour with the new album Rock Them Back To Hell), rock guitar hero Jared James Nichols, and doomy Iowa duo Telekinetic Yeti. Tickets at ticketmaster.com.

Pokey LaFarge, Wednesday, May 15, Majestic, 8 p.m.: After a decade of touring and writing songs that he says “glorified sadness because I lost sight of who I was,” LaFarge left the stage for a Maine farmfield where he spent a period of time working the fields 12 hours per day. The lifestyle change uncorked a creative burst that resulted in his new album, Rhumba Country, a batch of songs that show guile, joy and (never heavy handed) spirituality. John Prine inspired Illinois singer-songwriter Cody Diekhoff, aka Chicago Farmer, opens. Tickets at ticketmaster.com.

William Villalongo, through Aug. 11, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art: Based in Brooklyn, New York, William Villalongo paints, collages and cuts paper to achieve his intricate images which draw on the history of and myths around Black Americans and “invite the viewer to engage with the complexities and precarity of Black existence” — hence the show’s title, “Myths and Migrations.” Coming up: Art historian Melanie Herzog will lead a tour of the exhibit, at 2 p.m. on May 18.

Wisconsin Wrights New Play Festival, May 16-18, Edgewood College-Diane Ballweg Theatre, 7:30 p.m.: Forward Theater Company has been doing its part to help develop new plays through the Wisconsin Wrights biennial competition. Three playwrights work with professional directors, dramaturgs and actors to develop their plays, with staged readings at the end of the week. This year the festival kicks off on May 16 with The Flying Corpse by Thomas Campbell; continues on May 17 with The Other Side by Amy Quan Barry; and concludes on May 18 with Anatomical Hearts by Lila Hovey. Read James Rhem’s preview here.

Humbird, Thursday, May 16, High Noon Saloon, 7:30 p.m.: Humbird is Siri Undlin, and yes, if you were guessing from the name, she is from Minnesota. She’s a fresh folk voice, hard to pin down or categorize, devoted to some down and dirty electric guitar rhythms and passionate, Americana vocals. She’s touring in support of her latest album, Right On, which was recorded live to tape in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. With Creekbed Carter Hogan. Ticket at ticketmaster.com.

Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully, through May 25, Bartell Theatre: What if you visited your parents in the small town where you grew up, and it happened to be the weekend aliens invaded and surrounded the town with an impregnable force field? That’s the premise of Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully, adapted for the stage by Eddie Robson from his 2012 BBC Radio 4 series. Madison Theatre Guild presents the comedy at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday (except 2 p.m. on May 25) and 2 p.m. on May 19. Tickets at bartelltheatre.org.

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