11am: Photography

Like a detached anthropologist, Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide coolly captures the desolate, rural roads of the Deep South in “Flatlands,” an exhibition of platinum/palladium prints opening Saturday at the Gallery of Contemporary Photography. Traveling for three weeks with writer Robert Tejada, Iturbide composed a haunting travelogue of images as she captured the lifeless landscapes of the Mississippi Delta, New Orleans and Cajun Country.

* “Graciela Iturbide: Flatlands.” Gallery of Contemporary Photography, 2525 Michigan Ave., D-3, Santa Monica. Ends May 15. Open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free. (310) 264-8440.

8pm: Dance

Denver’s volcanic, 25-year-old Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company reminds us of the distinguished choreographers in our midst by bringing to the local community a program of works by Donald McKayle, long a leading figure in modern dance (“Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder”), a trend-setter on Broadway (“Raisin,” “Sophisticated Ladies”) and currently a dance professor at UC Irvine. From its repertory of eight McKayle pieces created for the company, Robinson has selected the lush mating ritual “Nocturne” and the impressionistic historical narrative “Blood Memories,” which traces the heritage of African Americans from the Nile to the Mississippi.

* Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company, Luckman Theatre, Cal State L.A., 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles. 8 p.m. $15 to $32.50. (323) 343-6600.

all day / Museum

The Petersen Automotive Museum may be the new kid on museum row, but it has deeper vaults than you might imagine. Its parent institution, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, has been collecting cars since 1937 and has some 150 vehicles in its permanent collection. For “Treasures of the Vault: Cars From the Permanent Collection,” the Petersen will roll out 25 of the more fascinating samples, from a 1949 MG TC to a 1962 Ferrari 400 Superamerica.

* “Treasures of the Vault: Cars From the Permanent Collection” at the Petersen Automotive Museum, 6060 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. $7; seniors and students, $5; ages 5 to 12, $3. Open daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Mondays after May 10. (323) 930-CARS.

8pm: Cabaret

Amanda McBroom has written songs for Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, Judy Collins and the Manhattan Transfer. Ann Hampton Callaway’s songs have been sung by Barbra Streisand, among others. Both are respected recording and performance artists with the ability to tell stories in song. This double bill promises plenty of musings on life and love from these demure divas.

* Amanda McBroom and Ann Hampton Callaway at Schoenberg Hall, UCLA, 8 p.m. $32; UCLA students, $9. (310) 825-2101.

8pm: Festival

Most of us didn’t get to go to Havana for the Music Bridges concerts, but we can get a taste of the music and art at the Cuban American Cultural Festival ’99. Sponsored by the Cuban American Cultural Institute, the festival opens Saturday with “You Art in My Heart,” a tribute to composer Ernesto Lecuona with performances by pianist Zenaida Manfugas and singer Olga Guillot. Sunday, an exhibition of paintings by Gacriela Miniet Mayor, Carmen Abelleira-White and Maria Antonia OrdoNez opens at the La Mirada Art Gallery. Other conferences, plays and films continue through May 2, the date of the daylong closing carnival.

* “You Art in My Heart,” Wilshire Ebell Theater, 4401 W. 8th St., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. $15. Art exhibition, 1 to 6 p.m. through April 25 at La Mirada Art Gallery, 15040 Imperial Highway, La Mirada. (310) 943-5846. Free. Closing carnival at Northrop lot at the corner of 120th Street and Crenshaw Boulevard, Hawthorne. $3. Information for all events: (310) 973-8669.

9pm: Pop Music

When Cesar Rosas released his own album, “Soul Disguise,” in March, it marked the first solo recording ever from the Los Lobos camp. And when the singer-guitarist brings his earthy, bluesy music to the House of Blues, it similarly figures to be the first individual L.A. show by a member of the revered band.

* Cesar Rosas, House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 9 p.m. $17.50. (323) 848-5100.

Freebies

The Santa Fe Art Colony hosts an Open Studio Artwalk at the converted factory at 2401 S. Santa Fe Ave., L.A. noon to 5 p.m. Also Sunday. (323) 587-6381.

*

Fay Kanin will moderate a discussion with some of today’s top women screenwriters as part of the LACMA film department’s “Women Screenwriters in Early Hollywood” series. LACMA, Bing Theater, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., 5 p.m. (323) 857-6010.