Memoirs of a Culture

Experts discuss book, movie and life

Comments (0) By Michelle Mathews Thursday, May 11 2006

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Women hesitant to enter the workforce should heed Missy Elliot's sage advice: "Girls, girls, get that cash/If it’s 9 to 5 or shakin' ya ass." Indeed, developing your skills and talents—iron smelting, macramé, hog wrestling—may secure you a lucrative and rewarding career. If your talents extend to playing the shamisen, fan-dancing and sleeping with your neck in a wooden cradle, then you might apply for a position as a Japanese geisha. Though it may be difficult for a Westerner to break into that secretive world, it has been done: American anthropologist Liza Dalby donned the obi and kimono in the late ’70s to become the geisha Ichigiku. And Arthur Golden's novel Memoirs of a Geisha would probably have never been as successful without the insider perspective of a retired geisha he interviewed while writing the book. Dalby and Golden will offer tales about geisha life and culture and discuss the challenges of turning Golden's book into a film at Arts & Letters Live, 7:30 p.m Friday at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 Harwood St. A reception and book signing will follow at the Crow Collection of Asian Art, 2010 Flora St. Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for senior citizens and $20 with a student ID. Call 214-922-1220.
Fri., May 12, 7:30 p.m.