URBAN SOUL: Pavement and culture butt heads as the Tucson Arts District Partnership dishes up another Downtown Saturday Night on March 1. The Tucson Symphony Orchestra warms up the action early with another Just for Kids Concert, featuring the orchestra's Flute and String Trio, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. As the sun sets, Ache Pa Ti fires up a Latin celebration from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Ronstadt Transit Center. Under the direction of Gary Rubenstein, the group pulls out a powerful repertoire of Afro-Cuban music and dance, blending intricate harmonies and dense percussive rhythms into a salsa blast. Catacoustic Groove meanwhile performs stunning a capella singing from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Arizona Alley, and nationally noted singer/guitarist Anne English heads up the Tucson Musician's Showcase from 7 to 10 p.m. in Fourth Avenue's Winsett Park. The Blue Prairie Dogs, "Cactus" Dan Ovid and Jeff "Doc" Whitmore, rip up Pennington Street from 7 to 10 p.m., and the Arts Brigade Street Mural Project is open for public perusal all night long at the corner of Pennington Sreet and Sixth Avenue. For more information, call 624-9977. UPTOWN EXOTICA: In Sanskrit, raga means "that which pleases, or "that which colors the mind." Sanjaya attempts both with a powerful performance of Indian music at the Casbah Tea House. Far-eastern styles, ranging from Rag Bhupali to Rag Puri Dhanashri--in fact just about everything but Ragtime--will be part of Sanjaya's repertoire. The group features local musicians Pete Fine, Matt Finstrom, Stefin Gordon and Don Reeve on a host of traditional Indian instruments, including the sitar, tabla, baya and tamboura. The band continues building an exotic local name for itself, and this show will no doubt add to that growing reputation. Performance is 8 p.m. Saturday, March 1, at the Casbah Tea House, 628 N. Fourth Ave. For details, call 881-3947. LIFTING THE VEIL: To the western eye, many facets of Arab culture seem very strange, quite trenchant, and more than a little repressive. But as with the rest of us inhabiting this teeming planet, it's hardly a static culture. Shifting tides have subsequently resulted in conflict among various segments of Arab society, none more potent than the struggle of women. Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad takes on the contentious topic in a lecture titled The Silk Curtain: The West, Arab Women and the Veil. A professor of Islamic History at the University of Massachusetts, Haddad will describe how western models of womanhood, promoted by Christian missionaries, American feminists and television, raise havoc in the Arab world, and how that culture adapts to the change. Free lecture is at 7 p.m. Thursday, February 27, in the Kiva Auditorium, located in the UA College of Education Building. For information, call 621-3938.

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