“August is one of the most heavily attended First Fridays, so we wanted to take advantage of that and have a party,” says Andrea Barela, development director at NEWSED Community Development Corporation, the driving organization behind Santa Fe Drive’s revitalization and purveyor of premier Latino cultural events such as the…

If not for lowbrow art and a lackluster Elvis impersonator, El Vez might never have been born. But history conspired to have Robert Lopez — the man behind the Mexican Elvis — curate an Elvis-inspired exhibit at the lowbrow Los Angeles art gallery La Luz de Jesus. A former vocalist…

For Colin Shattuck, it all started with ska music. The founder of Sportique Scooters had always loved the rude-boy lifestyle, and when he grew up, he wrote the book on it: Red Eyes, Whitewalls, and Blue Smoke: The Story of Scooters in America. Shattuck is also one of the grand…

Enjoy Tango Music and Dancing With the Just Desserts tonight at the Mercury Cafe. Hailing from Austin, Texas, Lisa Shawley and Michael Shay of the Just Desserts will bring their cello-and-accordion duet to the Merc, along with a sound that fuses the folk traditions of Argentina, Romania, Serbia, Italy and…

The doctor is in. If you’ve been grappling with making your lifestyle choices greener, the presenters and exhibitors at the EarthWorks Expo have the answers you’ve been seeking. About 35 hour-long workshops are included in the cost of admission, including “Electricity: Let’s Not Be Fossil Fools!” “Green Business Makes Cents”…

We all know what keeps the masses flocking to Colorado: the Rocky Mountain High — that special brand of adrenaline offered to all active denizens, who take their pick from a wide variety of blood-pumping or leisure activities in the state’s mountains, rivers and parks. Tonight, Abend Gallery, 2260 East…

Since 2005, the burgeoning East End Arts District has held biannual art walks to showcase the reinvented neighborhood and its new wares. But this summer, the strip of East Colfax Avenue that runs from Dallas to Havana Streets — otherwise known as the East End — is “bursting at the…

Hifalutin’ do-gooder hotelier Walter Isenberg (the Oxford et al.) and his wife, Christie, know how to raise cash. They employ a little trick called putting the “fun” in fundraising. Their charity, Concerts for Kids, kicked off its first flagship event — an annual concert — in 2004, and since then,…

In 1978, a small radio station in the people’s republic of Boulder was born. Inspired in part by a handbook on community radio called Sex and Broadcasting, and fostered by a coalition that met in a 1973 Free School class titled “A Desperate (or Last Ditch) Attempt to Start a…

“Life has changed over the last fifty years for Vietnamese women, gaining more rights and freedoms — but with the pressures of family duties, work and the persistent cultural expectations of women to serve the men in their lives there, art has not been an area where many have been…

Given the opportunity to see a Broadway musical inspired by ABBA’s hits, you may ask yourself, “Should I Laugh or Should I Cry?” But Denver said, “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme More!,” and now the acclaimed musical comedy MAMMA MIA! is back, for one week only. Watch a single “Mamma Mia” face…

“This isn’t your spandex-clad, Ride the Rockies kind of event,” says Jennifer Nordhem of the Cycle Jerks’ Memorial Day Weekend double blowouts, Foreplay and Gang Bang. The Cycle Jerks are a Denver-based Internet television group, but they also happen to throw the baddest bicycle bashes this town has ever seen…

“China was awarded the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympics — with the condition that it improve its human-rights record ahead of the Games,” says Susan Prager, outreach director of the Human Rights Torch Relay USA. “Instead, China escalated its human-rights abuses, which include rampant political incarcerations of so-called…

Comprising 23 acres of farmland along Sand Creek in Stapleton, the Urban Farm is many a young Denverite’s first exposure to cultivation, animal husbandry and riding horses. What began fifteen years ago as a horsemanship-education program has become a full-service agricultural/environmental education facility that serves thousands of urban youths. Although…

The waters of Chile’s Patagonia region are under threat from hydroelectric dam projects that would mar the pristine beauty of the earth’s most beloved land’s end. Tonight, Global Response — an environmental action and education network based in Boulder — jump-starts its campaign to protect Patagonian rivers and wilderness areas…

Take cover, easily-offended citizens: Lisa Lampanelli is in town! This voluptuous old blonde may dress like a 1950s housewife, but her gutsy standup routine has catapulted her to comedian celebrity status. She’s a regular on the dais of Comedy Central Roasts and on Howard Stern’s radio show. She heckles like…

It was a long-awaited banner day in Aurora’s history when the Fox Theater opened on October 30, 1946. Admission was 55 cents, which bought not only a picture show run on the best sound and projection equipment, but also access to a modern oasis, with climate engineering and germicidal lamps…

One long-ago July, in an RV with duck-motif interior, my family drove to Banff, Alberta. At my young age, the impossibly blue-green Lake Louise and the Rockies surrounding her were the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen. It’s no wonder the citizens of Banff have created a world festival to…

This week, the Iliff School of Theology and a number of community co-sponsors will host several special guests — nine of them, to be exact. Fifty years ago, the Little Rock Nine integrated the first Arkansas public school, despite the attempts of angry mobs and a misappropriated National Guard presence…

Tonight the African Community Center of Denver kicks off its fifth annual African Extravaganza at the University of Denver with a two-part program dedicated to refugee awareness. The first half includes the exhibit Faces of Refugees, which showcases photographer Barbara Vogel’s images from Sudan, and a meet-and-greet with Vogel. Then,…

Jamaica Kincaid’s writing career got started because of New Yorker columnist George W. S. Trow, who would take her with him while he conducted research for the magazine’s Talk of the Town section. With Jamaica along, his stories always seemed to get better. He went from mentioning her in the…

I am a home brewer because it satisfies so many of my sensibilities. I enjoy the creativity of crafting flavors, and I’m fascinated by the science of fermentation. But above all, I home-brew because it’s a deal — for $30, I can make two cases of beer in a month…