When Leadership Falls Short: The Crisis of Care in Library Work
Posted on in Blog Posts
Honoring Stories, Honoring Histories
Unlearning the Hush and the Power of Writing as an Act of Memory and Legacy
Posted on November 10, 2025 in Blog Posts
Authors:
Marlee Bunch
Each November, National Novel Writing Month invites writers around the world to take on the challenge of turning ideas into text and stories into something lasting. Although the nonprofit that founded National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo for short) shut down its website this year, the spirit of the movement lives on. For many, it is a chance to experiment with narrative, to bring memory, imagination, and history together. For me, writing has always been an act of listening as much as creating. It is about listening to the voices at risk of being forgotten or erased, and finding ways to ensure they live on the page, documented in the historical record for future generations. Writing is an act that helps us make meaning of ourselves, the world, and others.
My book, Unlearning the Hush: Oral Histories of Black Female Educators in Mississippi in the Civil Rights Era (2025), emerges from this conviction. It preserves oral histories of Black women educators whose contributions were pivotal to their students and communities during and after the era of desegregation
These stories reveal that education in Black communities was not defined solely by deprivation, but also by excellence, resilience, and a commitment to nurturing the whole child. Writing their narratives was an act of remembrance, one that underscores why storytelling remains central to both teaching and learning.
Why Stories Matter
When we write, we do more than record—we honor, connect, and bridge the past to the present. The educators I interviewed shared memories of teaching in underfunded schools, of navigating the challenges of desegregation and Jim Crow, and of building classrooms where students felt seen and valued. These accounts complicate oversimplified narratives about Black education, showing instead that innovation and community flourished even under systemic oppression.
Their words remind us that storytelling, whether in oral or written form, has always been a vehicle for justice and a means to advocate for a better world. National Novel Writing Month amplifies this truth by encouraging writers of all backgrounds to sit with their stories and bring them to life on the page. Just as educators carry the legacies of resilience and brilliance into classrooms, writers carry those legacies into literature, helping libraries and classrooms remain spaces of connection and imagination.
For me, oral histories have been more than research; they have been pathways back to elders, ancestors, and even my own family. Sitting with these stories allowed me to honor their wisdom, to recognize the lineage of teaching and activism of which I am a part, and to carry their voices forward for future generations. This act of listening, remembering, and writing is both deeply personal and profoundly communal, reminding us that every story told is a bridge across time, and a privileged glimpse into bearing witness to someone else’s stories and experiences.
A Multimodal Approach to Writing and Reading
Unlearning the Hush was designed to engage readers in multiple ways. Alongside oral histories, it incorporates historical vignettes, archival materials, visual art, and poetry. This multimodal approach reflects the many forms storytelling and writing can take and how each mode deepens our engagement with histories and stories.
This matters especially for educators and librarians. A text that blends voices, images, and poems invites different entry points for readers and learners. It creates opportunities for reflection and dialogue across age groups, disciplines, and experiences. For writers participating in National Novel Writing Month, it is also a reminder that stories span many forms: journals, visual storytelling, hybrid narratives, and poetry all contribute to how we make meaning and share our stories.
Leveraging Oral Histories for Learning and Inspiration
Oral histories are not only powerful records of lived experience, they are also practical tools for teaching and learning. In the classroom, oral histories invite students to practice empathy, listening, analysis, and communication—all skills essential to becoming thoughtful learners and engaged community members who are aware and appreciative of our global world and varying communities.
By engaging with oral histories, students learn to connect the past to the present. They begin to see how elders, ancestors, and community members contribute to our collective understanding of history. These stories open doors for research and inquiry, foster global awareness, and encourage appreciation for different perspectives, generational contributions, and intergenerational connections.
Oral histories also preserve memory. They ensure that voices too often left out of textbooks or mainstream accounts become part of the record for families, communities, and future generations. For educators and librarians, oral histories can be incorporated into projects that ask students to interview family members, community elders, or peers—documenting stories that might otherwise be lost or overlooked. Oral histories do more than preserve memory—they invite us to engage with the act of writing ourselves. When students and writers engage with oral histories, they are stepping into a lineage of storytellers, carrying forward the practice of listening, documenting, and writing. Each story shared becomes a way to strengthen connection and to deepen understanding across generations.
Carrying Voices Forward
Libraries, classrooms, and community spaces are all places where meaningful storytelling can emerge. When we read and write inclusive narratives, we create opportunities for people to see themselves and others reflected back, and to imagine new possibilities. Unlearning the Hush shows how stories of educators in one Mississippi city can resonate far beyond their borders. Their voices echo today, reminding us of the vital role educators play not only in shaping students’ academic lives but in cultivating a world that uses these lessons as a guide when considering the value of supporting students and communities.
National Novel Writing Month offers a chance for everyone—educators, librarians, students, and community members—to do similar work: to commit to their own writing, to preserve memory, and to shape narratives that will endure.
Writing is never a solitary act, even when we are alone in the process of writing. It connects us to those who came before and to the readers who will come after. Unlearning the Hush embodies this by preserving the words of educators, weaving them together with historical vignettes, visual art, and poetry to invite dialogue across generations.
This month, as writers and readers, we are called to honor a multitude of stories—our own, those overlooked, and those entrusted to us. Whether through National Novel Writing Month projects or books like Unlearning the Hush, storytelling remains both an art and a responsibility, a way of ensuring that legacies continue to live on, both on the page and in our collective memory.
For additional resources, educators and librarians are invited to explore the full text of Unlearning the Hush (2025), The Magnitude of Us: An Educator’s Guide to Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms (2024), or Leveraging AI for Human-Centered Learning, co-authored with Brittany R. Collins (2025).
About the author:
Dr. Marlee Bunch is an interdisciplinary educator, author, researcher, and lifelong learner. Her research examines the oral histories of Black female educators in Hattiesburg, Mississippi who taught between 1954 and 1971.
She received her doctoral degree from the University of Illinois in 2022 in Education/Policy/Organizational Leadership. Additionally, she has a Masters in Education (MEd), a Masters in Gifted Education (MS), a Bachelors in English, a certification in Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, and a certification in ESL (English as a Second Language).
Bunch has been an educator for 17+ years and is the founder of the un/Hush teaching framework. You can reach out or learn more about her work at https://www.marleebunch.com/.
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Header image is a detail of This is Harlem by Jacob Lawrence. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. © 2021 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. For more information, click here.