Habibi Means Beloved

Welcome, Beloved, whoever you are

Salam.

My name is Moudi Sbeity. I am a Lebanese-American author, poet, and transpersonal psychotherapist. Born in Texas and raised in Lebanon, I moved to the United States at the age of eighteen as an evacuee following the 2006 July war. In Utah, I founded and operated Laziz Kitchen, a Lebanese restaurant celebrated by the New York Times as “the future of queer dining.” I was also a named plaintiff in Kitchen v. Herbert, the landmark case that brought marriage equality to Utah and the 10th circuit states in 2014. As a lifelong stutterer, I am passionate about writing and poetry as practices in fluency and self-expression.

I have two books coming out in 2026; Habibi Means Beloved, a memoir on growing up queer and stuttering in Lebanon and my eventual evacuation to the United States; and Want A World, a poetry collection that addresses language, land, and war in relation to Lebanon and Palestine. You can learn more about them here. In addition to my forthcoming books, I post poems, prose, and occasional reflections here on Substack.

My writing focuses on themes of belonging and liberation through a contemplative framework of compassion, forgiveness, and awe. Central to my work is the question of what it means to be alive together in an impermanent world, and so gratitude, and the necessity of beauty. ​I often address and reference my inheritance of Lebanese customs and culture, including the poeticism of the Arabic language, while straddling my equal love and devotion to the land and lineage of the Rocky Mountains in the American West.​ I write with that tension in heart, not just in reference to land and place, but as the inner experience of belonging beyond form.​​

My experiences both as queer and someone who stutters attuned me with a curious listening towards the importance of kindness and compassion. Stuttering especially helped cultivate my fascination with the creationary power of speech and language, and the importance of being honest and intentional with words. And being queer bodied in today’s world taught me about story and narrative, and how the way we tell stories shapes and builds our belief systems and political structures. It seemed to me that many were excluded from the circle of inclusion, as was I, due to false understandings and belief structures built on separation.

I see no greater purpose than to companion one another along our shared journey. My hope is that this work will stand as an invitation to remember your unquestionable belonging, that you feel touched in that place in you that resides in wonder, and to then look at all of life through this lens of gratitude and tenderness. Perhaps our hearts may awaken against the backdrop of industrialization, profit, and war, which desecrate the dignity of each other, the land, and all beings. ​​We have been gifted a brief and mysterious life in the wide unknowable universe. So why not honor our place in it, and begin already with the business of grief alongside its joy, seeing each other as the miracles we already are.

One last note. I sustain a daily writing practice, which means I have a lot to share, and poems sitting alone in a document often get lonely and long to be witnessed. I publish frequently, which can be a lot to take in our prolific world. By all means, you don’t have to read every poem, though I appreciate your subscription and witness however you show up.

Another last note. I believe in equal access to poetry and art. All my posts are free. I could not write about justice and liberation and then collude with the systemic structures that privilege some over others. With that said, if you enjoy and benefit from my work, and feel called and have the resources to support me, then I will gratefully accept your generous vote of encouragement. You can support me by being a paid subscriber on Substack or through Buy Me A Coffee.

With Love,
Moudi