Laith Yousif

Brooklyn, NY · open to talks & readings

Engineer by day.
Poet & comic by night.

I'm Laith Yousif — Baghdad-born, Brooklyn-based. I build software, write the memoir Baghdad to Brooklyn, spin Arabic poetry, and do stand-up about all of it.

Explore my work → Watch my comedy

Four worlds I live in

Explore

💻

Tech & Tinkering

Engineering notes, productivity, dev tools and dotfiles — the original blog.

Blabby Me →

🪶

Shahrazad

Arabic poetry woven during a period of creative inspiration.

Read the verse →

📖

Baghdad to Brooklyn

An upcoming memoir — from the banks of the Tigris to the streets of Brooklyn.

The memoir →

🌍

Baghdad to New York

Dispatches from the Iraq war years, written by an Iraqi in New York.

Read the dispatches →

Building in public

Projects

earn-deal

Surfacing earning opportunities and deal flows. ↗

dotfiles

Chezmoi-managed dotfiles & bootstrap scripts for a consistent setup. ↗

plantuml-devcontainer

A Dev Container template that runs PlantUML Server locally. ↗

In the media

Press

Time Magazine “Laith Yousif: Iraqi 9/11 Survivor” (2008)

Dissent Magazine No Refuge Here: Iraqis Flee

ABC News Interview on the eve of Saddam Hussein's execution

The Wind of Amal A 2012 documentary following three Iraqi refugees in the U.S., including Laith.

Let's stay in touch.

Reach out for talks, readings, refugee advocacy, or just to say hi.