Banned Books Week shares the same afternoon as the Richmond Street Fair, organized by the El Segundo Kiwanis Club and absorbing five blocks of downtown El Segundo in this, its 33rd year. So what is this Kiwanis Club, anyway? Are they tamers of Lions and Elks in a world ruled by Shriners and Masons? Begun in 1915 in Detroit(!) by a tailor and a community organizer(!), the Kiwanis — an American-Indian term, possibly Huron, translated as “We share our talents” — began as a “no girls allowed” fraternal order of businessmen that has as of late become focused on the welfare and well-being of children, so expect amusements geared toward kids, as well as a general overall emphasis on the Golden Rule, citizenship, idealism and everything else that went out the window after the orgy of Reagan-era excess up through the STD test–results of Bush-era paranoia.

Sat., Sept. 26, 9 a.m., 2009

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