Writer Shelina Shariff-Zia told stories about her family while living in Kenya and Uganda at the Central Queens YMCA Monday.
She says the Indian-Muslim community in Kenya was small and tight-knit but were friendly with other groups.
Sharriff-Zia says she hopes her talk helps her audience better relate to people from different walks of life.
"People get a little scared when they think of people of different ethnicities and we've been having so much controversy. But at the bottom, people are people," said Shariff-Zia.
She also recently wrote “Nairobi Days,” a novel about growing up in the Indian community in Kenya.