Maple Weekend

The annual Maple Weekend at the Arnot Teaching and Research Forest, 611 County Road 13, Van Etten, will be held March 19-20, beginning with a pancake breakfast starting at 8 a.m. Lunch starts at noon. Guided tours from sap collecting to the finished product in the sugarhouse show how maple syrup is made. Admission: $6; age 5 and under free. Information online.

Keith Olbermann talk

Keith Olbermann '79, sportscaster, news anchor, political commentator and writer, will present a free talk at 6 p.m., March 29 at Bailey Hall. For eight years Olbermann hosted Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. He will start hosting a prime-time show on Current TV later this year. Free tickets are available at the Willard Straight Hall Ticket Office; doors to Bailey Hall will open at 5 p.m.; tickets will be honored until 5:50 p.m.

Hemlock infestations

A workshop to train volunteers to identify and report new hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) infestations will be March 19, 9:30-11:30 a.m., Cornell Plantations' Nevin Welcome Center. Hemlock woolly adelgids threaten eastern hemlock trees and the biodiversity they support; they were first reported in the central Finger Lakes region in mid-2008 but now inhabit at least 25 local sites. Information: http://www.cornellplantations.org/hwa.

Icons

A new exhibit, "iCON: Consuming the American Image," opens at the Johnson Museum, March 19, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and continues daily during museum hours through June 12. Icons are representations of figures, cultures and ideas regarded with reverence and honored with worship. In contemporary American society, these involve national imagery, celebrity and advertising. This exhibition is curated by the undergraduate members of the History of Art Majors' Society. The student curators will discuss their exhibition at Art for Lunch, March 31, noon-1 p.m., at the Johnson Museum.

Spring field ornithology

The annual Laboratory of Ornithology eight-week spring birding course begins March 23, with weekly Wednesday lectures, 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the Lab of Ornithology, weekend day trips at select birding locations in central New York and optional trips to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in Seneca Falls, N.Y., and/or the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in the Oceanville/Cape May, N.J., area. Space is limited. For fees and information: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/sfo, call 607-254-2466 or toll-free 800-843-2473, or e-mail sfoclass@cornell.edu.

Barnes in song

Metropolitan opera Wagnerian tenor Jon Fredric West joins soprano Judith Kellock and pianist Blaise Bryski for songs, arias and duets by Wagner, Harold Arlen, Schubert and Tosti, March 28 at 8 p.m., Barnes Auditorium. Free and open; no tickets required.

Lecture on African design

A.D. White Professor-at-Large Lowery Stokes Sims will present a lecture, "'What Is African?': Design, Craft and Art in the Global African Universe," March 29 at 5:15 p.m., Johnson Museum. Sims has spent more than three decades working in museums and is curator at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, where she co-curated The Global Africa Project in 2010. Information: http://museum.cornell.edu.

Bias response forums

Bias response feedback forums will be held March 24, noon-1 p.m., 121 Weill Hall, and March 29, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Memorial Room, Willard Straight Hall. The forums are being held to ensure the bias response program is as responsive to the needs of students, faculty and staff members as possible and to develop an understanding of community expectations regarding respect, civility and a welcoming environment for individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Chorus concert

The Cornell University Chorus with Scott Tucker conducting will present a post-tour concert, March 29 at 8 p.m., Sage Chapel. The concert includes David Conte's "To Music"; Vineet Shende's "To Musique"; Theodore Morrison's "Puisque tout passé"; works by Brahms, Thomas Weelkes and George Gershwin; and popular music for women's voices. Free and open; no tickets required. Information: http://www.cuchorus.com/.

Momenta Quartet

Two concerts in Barnes Auditorium, March 30 and 31, both at 8 p.m., feature visiting Momenta Quartet. At the March 30 concert, the quartet is joined by the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble and guests to present new music from Southeast Asia, featuring pieces for both Western instruments and Indonesian gamelan instruments by four Indonesian composers rarely or never heard in the United States. At the March 31 concert, the Cornell Contemporary Chamber Players, under the direction of Charles Cacioppo and Taylan Cihan, and the Momenta Quartet perform music by Cornell graduate composers. Free and open; no tickets required.

Energy conference

The Gas Drilling, Sustainability and Energy Policy conference will be held March 31-April 2, Myron Taylor Hall, including a community forum March 31 at 6:30 p.m., G90 Myron Taylor Hall. The conference will explore natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing, clean-technology solutions, and state and national energy policy. Distinguished speakers from law, business, science and government will come together to address these issues. Free and open; registration required. Information: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/research/ELS/Schedule.cfm.

Democracy and higher education

A book talk by Scott J. Peters, associate professor of education, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and associate editor for the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, will be held March 31 at 4 p.m., 160 Mann Library. Peters will address the public mission, purposes and work of American higher education. Referencing his newest book, "Democracy and Higher Education: Traditions and Stories of Civic Engagement," Peters will present oral history profiles of Cornell faculty members that illustrate civic professionalism in higher education. Information: http://www.mannlib.cornell.edu/events-exhibits.

Levitt directs 'Pillowman'

Bruce Levitt, professor of acting and directing in the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance, directs "The Pillowman," a play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, March 31-April 3, Risley Theatre, 302 Risley Hall. "The Pillowman" is a black comedy that portrays a fiction writer living in a police state who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to the recent murders of three children. Shows are at 8 p.m. March 31, April 1 and 2; 2 p.m. April 3. Tickets are $15, http://www.BrownPaperTickets.com and at the door.

Anat Cohen concert

The Anat Cohen Quartet will play modern and traditional jazz, classical music, Brazilian choro, Argentine tango and Afro-Cuban styles April 1 at 8 p.m., Bailey Hall. Tickets (general, $22-32; students, $16 any section) at http://www.CornellConcertSeries.com and http://BaileyTickets.com and in-person/by phone at Ticket Center Ithaca (on the Ithaca Commons, 607-273-4497).

Advising leaders

Foreign Policy Distinguished Speaker Eliot A. Cohen, who served as counselor to the U.S. Department of State under Secretary Condoleezza Rice, 2007-09, will present "On Giving Strategic Advice to Leaders," April 1 at 3 p.m., Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. Cohen is now a professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University and has specialized in the Middle East, Persian Gulf, Iraq, arms control and NATO.