By Akil Salim Roper '97
Richard Price, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, novelist and Cornell alumnus, re turned to campus on Feb. 23 to read from his novel-in-progress and talk about a movie made from his most well-known work.
During his visit, sponsored by the Creative Writing Program, the Council on the Arts, the College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell Cinema and the Department of Theatre Arts, Price '71 employed his striking stories of urban conflict and the machinations of movie -making to captivate his audiences.
At Goldwin Smith Hall's Kaufmann Auditorium, Price read almost an hour's worth of prose from his new book, set in a predominantly African-American, Northeast blue-collar town called Dempsey.
The excerpt he read described the interaction, in a hospital emergency room, be tween a black cop from the projects and a white woman who claims she has just been the victim of a carjacking while passing through a black neighborhood. Price uses the characters to address complicated issues of race, class and gender. The narrative causes the reader to think about, and question, prevalent conceptions -- and miscon ceptions -- and negative stereotypes.
"In my stories, I try to make people understand the so-called 'human garbage,' such as the main character in Clockers, a drug dealer named Strike, so they can relate [the characters] to their own lives and see the similarities," Price said.
Price's body of work includes five novels: The Wanderers , Blood Brothers, Ladies' Man, Looking for Love and Clockers, and three screenplays, for the movies Night in the City, Sea of Love and The Color of Money. He received an Oscar nomination for the latter.
Following his reading and a book-signing reception, Price came to the Willard Straight Theatre to introduce the movie Clockers , based on his novel and adapted for the screen by director Spike Lee.
Price explained how his novel was first purchased by Universal for director Martin Scorcese, but by the time 600 pages were peeled off the original for a suitable 120 -page screenplay, Scorcese and actor Robert DeNiro, who was also interested in the project, had decided to do the movie Casino , instead. When Spike Lee came along and wanted to rewrite the screenplay for Clockers, Price gave him the opportunity.
"Spike's a great visual artist," Price said. "The movie is good; genuinely moving, powerful, and there are a few tremendous performances by some of the actors."