Donna Brazile, former chairperson of the DNC, takes a very different chair today, on the hot seat on Arts Express. Fielding questions about charges - and her own counter-charges - as to what went down surrounding the turmoil of the 2016 election. And as detailed in her controversial new political memoir, 'Hacks: The Inside Story Of The Break-ins And Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump In the White House.' Or did they?

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

** "He writes music he hopes will change the world - its militance, joy, and collective self-discovery."

Music Corner: Chris Butters presents the inspirational movement music for the new year, of performer Fred Arcoleo. Including singing that fueled the Occupy Wall Street Movement back then.

** "What Does Capitalism Mean For Millennials?"

Ideology And Culture Corner: Political analyst and RT reporter Caleb Maupin delves into the plight - and hope - for the next generation in a troubled world, a presentation Maupin delivered to the students at Rutgers University. Referencing 'this low wage economy and the rising police state'; student debt, aderall, the status quo, and endless wars; and 'young people working long hours sweeping floors, serving coffee, or lugging boxes around.'

Bro On The World Film Beat: Arts Express Paris Correspondent, Professor Dennis Broe with his Top Five Worst Films of 2017, plus ten Honorable Mentions. Touching on Egyptian Noir and B filmmaking at its finest; the potential of political awakening, an Indonesian ghost story, and a Bulgarian taxi driver pushed too far by the banks; and Deep South sharecropping exploitation in the 1940s - an award winning film boycotted by Hollywood. 

** "I'm hideously shy as myself - but on stage I can run around naked and bite the heads off fish."

A Conversation With Laurie Metcalf: Star of Lady Bird and the return of Roseanne to television in 2018.  Metcalf, up for a potential Oscar for her role as a stressed out working mother in Lady Bird, is on the line to Arts Express discussing as well, what's up with her return in the revival of the blue collar small screen sitcom Roseanne, for which she won three Emmys. And, a look back at the unforgettable and haunting Roseanne episode, in which her character Jackie is a victim of domestic violence.

** "A vast uncharted journey to the unimaginable - and a portrait of a filmmaker as a young woman."

Alexis Excursion Through The Arts: Sex And The Cyborg Goddess. This week's excursion features Cal. State professor, filmmaker and author Alexis Krasilovsky - alias Rafael, reading excerpts and reflecting on her new novel. Probing the college campus female experience torn between sexual liberation, and issues of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination.

Sammy Davis Jr: I've Gotta Be Me Review

** "I think this film is important because it's a window into the past - but also a window into what we're seeing today in the present, like with Charlottesville."

An extraordinary documentary about the first black man to sleep in the White House - no, not Obama - but rather Sammy Davis Jr. A simultaneous chronicle of an entire turbulent era, and a memory lane excursion through the complex and complicated life of the gifted entertainer.

Emmy and Peabody Award winner Sam Pollard, filmmaker for Eyes On The Prize episodes and on Spike Lee films as well, directs this eloquent examination of Davis, written by Laurence Maslon. A contradictory, self-described reluctant activist who turned up at the March On Washington and in Selma with Martin Luther King; who created a firestorm integrating both the Broadway stage, and on All In The Family - by planting the first ever interracial kiss on television, on Archie Bunker's cheek; engaged in a strange bromance with Nixon; and drafted into the first ever integrated US Army unit where he endured PTSD - not from war but from racism.

A warts and all illuminating screen portrait of the phenomenal legend - performer, singer, dancer, inpressionist, actor, musician and anti-racist civil rights advocate. Surviving his way as an African-American man in Jim Crow America back then.

And the best documentary this year, not opening at any theater near you.

Prairie Miller

Arts Express: Dare To Be Different Radio