Today on GRITtv we mark International Youth Day with a panel on organizing and what’s keeping young people engaged. In New York, the Palestine Israel Education Project is sharing stories and strategies of resistance with peers in the Middle East. They’re using their own culture—music, video, and film—to tell their stories. Maybe it’s not so complicated after all. There are a lot of talented youth out there. They just need the resources and space to do creative work.

Here to discuss how young people are engaging in politics this year and beyond are Ora Wise of The Palestine/Israel Education Project (PEP), Chantale Soekhoe, a high school organizing intern with the Welfare Rights Initiative, Talia Bravo of El Puente, and Jonathan Rosario, a High School senior who volunteers and interns with El Puente.

We also have an interview and performance with singer and guitarist Gary Lucas. Lucas, who recorded with the late Jeff Buckley, discusses what the blues mean to him and why he finds echoes of the art form in everything from Celtic to Jewish and African music. He recently returned from a trip to New Orleans, which still looks like a war zone. But, he says, the spirit of music there lives on. Listen to the interview and studio performance here.

Finally, a video from the American News Project on the rising homicide rate among young black men in the United States. As the economy slides and opportunities decrease for America's at-risk youth we can only hope this is not the beginning of another national crisis. All that and more on GRITtv.