Lorraine Bethel is an African-American lesbian feminist poet and author.
Bethel participated in the Combahee River Collective, an organization that was part of the Women's Liberation Movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
In an issue of off our backs, a feminist news journal, a participant recounts her experience in the 3rd World Lesbian Writers Conference on February 24, 1979 at New York City's Women's Center, in which Lorraine Bethel and Barbara Smith moderated one of the five workshops available.
Or, The Cullud Lesbian Feminist Declaration of Independence", which was published in this issue.
[1] Identifying in this essay as a Black feminist critic, she wrote, "...I believe there is a separate and identifiable tradition of Black women writers, simultaneously existing within and independent of the America, Afro-American, and American female literary traditions.