About Chaouie

Halito, friends! I am Chaouie. Pronounced sha-wee. I am an artist, writer, publisher, and musician. I am a non-binary descendant of Choctaw ancestors from Mississippi.

I am a staunch supporter of creativity and innovation. A lifelong geek who grew up on cheesy horror movies, Stephen King novels and bright adventurous comic books. I love science and art, cooking, and listening to punk rock and hip hop on vinyl. I am a proud bohemian nerd who wears their dorky heart on their sleeve.

I am a divorced father of four who has spent their entire life either in very low middle class or poverty. I have seen the worst parts of society, as well as the best, from a front row seat of struggle and worry. I was born as Charles Metcalf Jr in Ferriday, Louisiana, in 1979 to working class conservative parents, who raised me in Louisiana and Mississippi as they worked to find their footing in the economically challenged South of the 1980s and early 90s.

I grew up with an overwhelming interest in the arts. Drawing, painting, writing, and playing music have long been more than mere hobbies to me. They are vital to my very well being. My personal moral compass was built by a combination of lessons learned from my parents, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and X-Men comic books, and these lessons inform my humanitarian beliefs to this day. After the turn of the century, in my early adulthood, I began taking my creativity more seriously. I played in various bands, and began writing fiction more. Under the pseudonym Chuck Morgue I have written and released novels inspired by the horror films and books I enjoyed so much as a kid. I now work under the name Chaouie, a Choctaw word meaning raccoon, a nickname bestowed upon me by one of my aunts when I was a child.

I married young, like many tend to do, and jumped from job to job, hustling paycheck to paycheck, just to make ends meet. When I divorced in 2015, I became a single dad to four incredible kids, including a son on the autism spectrum. I struggled to make sense of the change in dynamics, and found it to be a very enlightening challenge. My children have since flourished in school, and I couldn’t be more proud of them. My kids are my entire world, which is why I have long felt the need to be involved in progressive politics and activism.

The sociopolitical landscape fills me equally with excitement and acute dread. The real world has always had this effect on me. My imagination is my refuge, creativity my outlet.

I am a sexual trauma survivor. I struggle with depression and social anxiety. Art has always been cathartic for me.

Whether I am writing novels or short stories, composing songs, or making a big mess with paint on canvas, I am putting my heart out there. Sometimes the end result is discomforting. Sometimes it is exhausting. And sometimes, it makes me proud.

I hope you find something to enjoy in what I have to offer the world. Or perhaps something to despise. Or to pity. As long as you have a real reaction to what I create, then my art has served its purpose.

In solidarity,

Chaouie