Marion Bethel (born 31 July 1953) is an attorney, poet, essayist, filmmaker, human and gender rights activist, and writer from Nassau, The Bahamas.
[10] Following the death of Southern Christian Leadership Conference founder and civil rights pioneer Evelyn Lowery, Bethel's film Womanish Ways: Freedom, Human Rights & Democracy 1934 to 1962 was showcased at Spelman College and she met some of Atlanta's most influential African-American entrepreneurs and activists, in addition to former vice-president of Tyler Perry Studios and CEO/ President of Bobbcat Films Rogger Bobb.
[9] From 1896 to 1994, she then went on to work in the Office of the Attorney General; in 1997, she was named the Alice Proskauer Fellow at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, Harvard University, while also writing Bougainvillea Ringplay during her spare time.
[3][8][13] Her second poetry book, Bougainvillea Ringplay, was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2009, receiving positive review coverage, including from Fred D'Aguiar, Lorna Goodison, Antjie Krog, and Olive Senior.
[14] Bethel acted as Ms. Wells in the 2008 movie Rain – which also featured Renel Brown, Nicki Micheaux and C. C. H. Pounder[15] – and is better known for the documentary film she directed on the women's suffrage movement in The Bahamas.
[3] She was one of few Caribbean writers to receive the Casa de las Américas Prize for her collection of poems in Guanahani, mi amor: Y otros poemas (1994).
[2] One way she has contributed to gender justice and culture is through her documentary film Womanish Ways: Freedom, Human Rights & Democracy, the Women's Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas 1948 to 1962, on the struggle to gain Bahamian women the right to vote,[16] which received the 2012 Award in Documentary at the Urban Suburban International Film Festival in Philadelphia, despite interventions on behalf of female members of parliament Hope Strachan and Loretta Butler.