8:15 pm: Pop Music

Folk priestess Ani DiFranco has been doing a good job in her love-hate struggle with celebrity, maintaining her independent stance and devoting time to such non-mainstream pursuits as a collaboration with Old Left folk patriarch Utah Phillips. The Universal Amphitheatre show will be a new test, her largest headlining show yet in Southern California.

* Ani DiFranco, with Maceo Parker, Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, 8:15 p.m. $21 and $30. (818) 622-4440.

10 am: Family

Music and theater group JP Nightingale kicks off the Ford Family Fun series of morning performances for children ages 3 to 10 and their families with “The Teddy Bear Picnic Parade” and a “B.E.A.R.” message: “Be Enthusiastic About Reading.” Teddy bears welcome.

* “The Teddy Bear Picnic Parade,” John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd., 10 a.m. $7. (323) 461-3673.

all day: Art

Pottery from the Gran Chichimeca (1000 to 1400 AD) offers insights into what is now Northern Mexico and the American Southwest in “Ancient Trails: Connecting the Gran Chichimeca,” opening Saturday at the Southwest Museum. The exhibition will highlight the pottery, architecture and culture of the area as the venerable works are compared with modern pottery from the village of Mata Ortiz, where artists continue to produce works in the ancient tradition.

* “Ancient Trails: Connecting the Gran Chichimeca,” Southwest Museum, 234 Museum Drive, Mount Washington. Ends July 30, 2000. Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Adults, $6; students and seniors, $4; children 6-17, $3; children under 6, free. (323) 221-2164.

8 pm: Pop Music

“All-Star Powerhouse” should fill the rap gap between the recent “Hard Knock Life” tour and the coming “KKBT the Beat Summer Jam.” The title is no exaggeration, with a hit-heavy roster of hip-hop bestsellers, including Nas, Master P, Eminem, Jermaine Dupri, Slick Rick, Krayzie Bone, Ja Rule, Ma$e and many others.

* “All-Star Powerhouse,” Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. 8 p.m. $23 to $65. (714) 704-2500.

8 pm: Theater

A blues-guitar-playing, supernatural trickster faces off with the children of the only musician who ever “out-licked” him in “Thunder Knocking on the Door,” a musical fantasy by Keith Glover and Grammy Award-winner Keb’ Mo’.

* “Thunder Knocking on the Door,” Old Globe Theatre, Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, Simon Edison Centre for the Performing Arts, San Diego. Tuesdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 14. $23 to $39. (619) 239-2255.

8 pm: Dance

Much-acclaimed choreographer Winifred R. Harris premieres “One Race Woman” at the Ford Amphitheatre tonight. Featuring her Between Lines company and guest artists Karen Malina White (“The Cosby Show”) and Evelyn Harris (former member of Sweet Honey in the Rock), the full-evening dance-theater piece calls for a cast of 10, with texts taken from, among others, Kahlil Gibran and Ntozake Shange, and live and taped music, including a choir. Billed as a celebration of “the journey of all people through the eyes of women,” “One Race Woman” has been in the works since 1996.

* “One Race Woman” by Between Lines, John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, 8 p.m. $20. (323) 461-3673.

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FREEBIES: The outdoor Shakespeare on the Green presents “As You Like It” as a ‘60s-era comedy, 4 p.m. at Griffith Park’s Old Zoo site, off Griffith Park Drive. Continues Saturdays and Sundays July 10-25 and Aug. 14-29.

The Getty Center’s Family Festival includes dance, theater and musical performances, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A., 10 a.m. Parking reservations required. (310) 440-7300.