There are 4 generations of educators in my family, and I can go back to at least one member who taught in one-room schools in the early part of the century. They were amazing storytellers, and in my child's mind, I associated being educated with the ability to tell stories to people inside and outside the classroom. Because I was such an avid listener, a reader and extremely curious, I saw early how stories empowered people, imparting wisdom and guiding their actions in one way or another. The more I advanced in my own education, the more I left these stories behind. An important connection came in the form of a battered copy of a first edition of Negro Caravan and a Royal typewriter, circa 1950 (both belonging to my deceased father).This background provides the context for my own engaged scholarship, whether it is the teaching of autobiography as a structured way to give meaning to memory, my passion for recovering and promoting the history of literacy and literature through The Project on the History of Black Writing (1983--); or my international collaborative work, like The Cambridge History, a book 10 years in the making or the Language Matters Initiative.