Cylk CozArt; Director / Producer / ActorWWW.COZARTSENTERTAINMENT.COM

Cylk Cozart was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, His father is African American and his mother is Native American (Cherokee).

CozArt, had a very brutal introduction to the world when he was born. His teenage mother, went into a coma for 2 days. Both mother and child were not going to make it. The racist Tennessee hospital, would not admit the Indian mother and her African American husband. His family was relatively poor and he spent an inordinate amount of his adolescence bouncing between his Cherokee, teenage mother and his father's family, who lived in a small hamlet outside the city of Knoxville. Cylk chased farm animals and tended to crops. Cylk, pronounced like "Elk," with a C in front, is a Cherokee nick name for ‘Running Water,” was given to him by the famous, Chief Iron Eyes Cody, who was close friends with Cherokee Chief ManKiller. At the mere age of 3, Cylk was enrolled into an all African American school near Oak Ridge,Tennessee. Soon, the US Government enforced National School Busing and Cylk was forced to go to an all white school.

Nobody noticed that this little boy was much younger than all of his classmates. There was no middle or Jr. High school so Cylk went right into high school 2 years early. The KKK, burned two crosses in his yard; then murdered (his German shepherd dog named “King,”) whose body they hanged from a tree in his yard. Maybe at 12 he was too young to comprehend such awfulness. But his great-aunt and uncle, (since deceased), understood. To make sure everyone saw the ugliness, they left the charred crosses in place for a few days. Young CozArt boarded the school bus that morning, while the smoke from the charred crosses, rose eerily for all to see.
His mixed ancestry was transparent. Finding a comfortable balance between his Cherokee ancestry and the Buffalo Soldier genes, was an ongoing challenge. His African American lineage can be traced back to the "white CozArts,"of North Carolina, who owned tobacco plantations and hundreds of slaves. His great- grandfather was a slave on the CozArt tobacco plantation.

CozArt's athletic ability in high school football and basketball, led to several college scholarship offers, but hatred from the Karns high school and community raised it's ugly head right after a winning senior football season. Cylk spent many Friday nights, (sleeping inside the football locker room), to avoid the fights and beatings he had received many times from several white boys "and men" waiting outside after the games. If that wasn't enough, Cylk was told he could not play basketball his senior year. The coach called CozArt a "hotdog" (for his style of play) and expressed his dislike of rumors that Cylk was dating a white girl and this was not accepted. Cylk, was forced to move to another school in the middle of his senior year. (Loudon HS) Despite the Tennessee school's district rules that only allowed Cylk to play in the last 14 games of his senior season, he still had over 30 scholarship offers from colleges.

Journalist / author, Bobby Glanton Smith, has a first hand account, of when he met CozArt:

The following is an excerpt from the book on CozArt's life:

"A Diamond In The Rough"

"The sweltering gym on the campus of the University of Tennesseewas teeming with outstanding athletes. A number of the players from the nationally ranked Tennessee Volunteers’ football team, along with members of the world- class track and field program and stalwarts from the rapidly improving Vols’ basketball team, were engaging in spirited, highly competitive games of pick-up basketball. Summer school had just ended and preseason football practice would begin the following week, so many of the athletes had time on their hands and basketball became a way to gain conditioning and keep that competitive flame burning. Bernard King, who’d signed a letter of intent in the spring, came to Knoxvilleearly to acclimate into life in the Deep South. A native of Brooklyn, New York and the concrete jungle known as FortHamilton, King had been a High School All American and one of the most heavily recruited players in the nation. King, who is in the basketball Hall of Fame – and one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, walked into the gym and declared he was next up. Ernie Grunfeld, who is now the (General Manager of the WashingtonWizards NBA team,) was playing on the team that dominated play for nearly an hour. So, when I suggest that the gym was filled with great athletes on that steaming hot summer day, I’m referring to the likes of Condredge Holloway (who was the first black quarterback in the school’s history and arguably the greatest athlete to ever attend the University of Tennessee – he was a first round draft pick of the Montreal Expos right out of high school – and he excelled in every sport he ever played), Haskell Stanback (All-SEC tailback who later played in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons), Stanley Morgan (All-SEC wi