Elizabeth City gets a taste of the big apple

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C.

Barry Keyes; his wife, Mary Anne; and several friends had just finished eating barbecued chicken, cole slaw and vanilla bean cookies and were awaiting the start of a classic movie to be shown on the Elizabeth City waterfront.

Nearby, Keyes' pickup truck was set up for tailgating. Skies were clear. A brisk breeze from the water chased the mosquitoes. Some 150 people sat in lawn chairs or blankets.

"Isn't this great," Mary Anne Keyes said.

"Even if we don't like the movie, we'll still tailgate," Barry Keyes said.

Organized by Elizabeth City native Simone Cooper, the Mariners' Wharf Film Festival on Tuesday nights has so far drawn crowds double what was expected. About 200 came for the first movie.

Last year, Cooper put together an opera concert that drew a full house and raised nearly $8,000 for the Museum of the Albemarle.

It was an event never seen before in Elizabeth City, said Charlotte Underwood, director of tourism for the Elizabeth City Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"The ideas she comes up with," Underwood said of Cooper. "She just gets it done, and we all enjoy it."

Inspired by 19 years working and socializing in New York City, Cooper has single-handedly energized Elizabeth City's night life.

The outdoor film festival magnifies a scant calendar of summer evening events, including a few Friday nights of live music sponsored by a local restaurant. Two bands are scheduled to play the Fourth of July on the waterfront. A cinema that offers dinner and a movie is a popular year-round staple and, as always, a few bars remain open until late.

"I ask myself what else can be done here," she said. "I have a lot of ideas all the time."

After nearly two decades working a frantic public relations lifestyle in New York City, Cooper returned here five years ago to help take care of her late father, who was ill at the time. She settled into a quieter lifestyle but kept her long dreadlocks.

"When I go back to New York, I ask myself how did I do this for so many years," she said.

Cooper works out of her home for several New York clients and, in her spare time, volunteers.

The film festival was inspired by a similar event held at Bryant Park in New York City. To put on the opera, she invited her friend, New York opera singer Rose Leahr Bowen, to give a concert.

Cooper speaks without an accent, northern or southern, and approaches people for sponsorship in an easy-going manner.

"The opera was a huge success," said Maureen Donnelly, owner of the Elizabeth City Bed and Breakfast. "She is so gracious. People want to help her."

Cooper graduated with a journalism degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill before going to New York City. She got a job at a publishing firm in public relations and worked her way up. In 1990, she started her own business. But she's glad to be back home.

"It's sort of given me a chance to recharge," she said.

Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0158, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com