Thomas Sayers Ellis, assistant professor of creative writing at New York's Sarah Lawrence College, is one of many scholars fighting for the soul of Black poetry, a struggle that takes place largely off-campus. Unless one is accepted into a top-level graduate poetry program, such as Boston University's program or the Iowa Writing Workshop, a poet's opportunities are limited. And Black poets face an even tougher road. E. Ethelbert Miller, director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University, says the problem has been brewing for a while. In the 1980s, Miller tried to get 100 or so historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) revved up about creative writing programs. Only a dozen responded. Most of the institutions didn't see the value in investing in the programs, arguing that creative writing wasn't a marketable skill. Xavier University of Louisiana was one of the HBCUs that did respond favorably, creating an undergraduate poetry program. Xavier and Spelman College both currently have undergraduate creative writing minors, and Howard and Morehouse College each offer one undergraduate class. However, none of the top-tier HBCUs offer graduate-level poetry programs. This article describes the efforts of Ellis and other scholars to keep Black poetry alive through HBCUs.