Ziggy Marley performing at an “Africa Unite” concert, one of the opening films at next week’s Black Is… CultureFeast.

The theme of this year’s Black Is … CultureFeast is a tricky one. “Documenting Dualityâ€? is all about how African-Americans negotiate the changing terrain of the mainstream.

“We move inside mainstream culture but have our own culture, and we have to seamlessly shift,â€? says Ashara Ekundayo, founder of Black Is … CultureFeast and creative director of the Pan African Arts Society. “You need to be able to move in all communities, and know that mainstream society is going to use your presence as their representation of what blackness is.â€?

And obviously, there isn’t only one way to “be black,� either.

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Like the hot stuff? Los Tapatios has you covered.

On the grand tour of family-owned downtown Lafayette Mexican joints, you can eat your way around the flavor wheel of green chile and never have a taste or texture repeated.

Start up on the north end of Public Road, at La Familia, where the sauce is heavily informed by jalapeños, chopped fine and complemented by thick chunks of pork. Across the street, at Santiago’s, your burrito will be bathed in classic gravy-style green, slick and influenced by tomatoes. Farther south, there’s Efrain’s, with a higher heat profile, and still farther down the road, at Casa Alvarez, the tastes are pushed another direction altogether by the owner’s South American upbringing.

And finally, way down on the south end of Public Road, Los Tapatios moves us into new territory, with a tangy tomatillo green sauce and a roasty red that keeps us going back for more.

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Pull up Why?’s MySpace page and the first thing you’ll hear are familiar words amid unfamiliar sonics: “I’ve waited hours for this/ I’ve made myself so sick/ I wish I’d stayed/ Asleep today.�

Of course, that’s the opening lyric to the Cure’s “Close to Me,� one of the upbeat, snazzy compositions that helped define the band’s popularity throughout the ’80s and ’90s. Why? frontman Yoni Wolf sometimes overdoses on songs, listening to them over and over and over again, and when he was laying into “Close to Me� recently, he realized something about the poppy dance track.

“After maybe the fiftieth listen, it struck me that lyric-wise, it is a very dark song,� Wolf said earlier this week, advancing a tour that brings him to Denver’s Hi-Dive on Friday, April 11. “The production style they chose is at odds with this, and there-in lies much of the interest and tension in the song.

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DJ Tatiana will spice up DC10 on Saturday.

Denver’s a drinking town, and has the bars to prove it. But only a handful of the city’s pubs and clubs cater directly to the gay community. The ones that exist — J.R.’s (777 E. 17th Ave.), Charlie’s (900 E. Colfax Ave.) and Tracks (3500 Walnut St.), to name a few — are stalwart institutions showing no signs of flagging, but wouldn’t it be nice to have more options?

April is your lucky month. Just this week, two new places-to-be arrive on the scene: DC10’s (940 Lincoln St.) new FlyGirl Saturdays and the all-new Wilde Dancebar and Lounge (2157 Downing St.). Touted as an “alternative� night at a place that’s typically filled with the usual Denver party people, FlyGirl is on course to be a hit with the ladies.

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Juthamas Teawdeswan removes a curry puff appetizer from the deep-fryer at J’s Noodles & New Thai Restaurant. Photo by Glenn Asakawa.

Somewhere around West Alameda Avenue, Asian cuisines take over the storefronts on Federal Boulevard. Drive by too quickly and you’ll miss the little restaurants among the nail salons and check cashing operations.

But after a tasty experience at one of these humble haunts, you’ll never go speeding past the strip malls again. Instead, you’ll be scouring the blocks for another fix. The venerable J’s Noodles and New Thai can start such a quest.

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