We're living in a political era that has many people feeling despair, raising questions that

are deeper than politics, like, is our society going backwards? If civil society is broken,

are we better off just focusing on our own happiness, or the big one, what's the point of life?

Many turn to the arts for insights, from the handmaidens' tale to black mirror, the arts can offer salvation and deeper thought.

And celebrated novelist Alice Walker's weighing in on the Trump era in her art.

She says history shows you cannot regret misfortune because it actually can lead us somewhere better.

Walker joins me on the beat tonight. Viewers may recognize her name from over 35 books of fiction and poetry or her Pulitzer Prize for the novel to color purple, which was adapted into a Steven Spielberg movie that features the film debuts of two black women, Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, in a tale confronting the ravages of slavery and sexual abuse.

Oh my life I had to fight my

my dad, I had to fight my uncles,

I had to fight my brothers.

Five, child ain't safe, and family men.

Three seconds.

I never thought I had to fight in my own house.

Walker is now confronting the Trump era head on.

She writes Americans distraught at Trumpism should channel anger into a wider awakening.

And her new book of poetry grapples with race, police brutality, and the immigration crisis.

Alice Walker, an honor to have you here.

I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Absolutely. What are you saying with your poems and do you think of them as a message

about democracy and politics?

I think of them as a way to talk to people about tending to their own hurt and their own

wounds instead of just screaming at the person who hurt you.

Because there's a way in which if we don't heal ourselves,

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