STEFAN CHRISTOFF
Montréal -based activist Stefan Christoff sits onstage at a wooden bench in La Sala Rossa on The Main.
A small crowd has gathered on a chilly Sunday evening in April. The show is starting late. A lanky, bespectacled man in his thirties, Christoff wears all black from his shoes to his turtleneck to his tousled hair. His thin figure is likely the result of a manic schedule. He rubs his eyes like a child blinded by the morning light and turns to the crowd.
“I don’t do this very often, I’m kind of nervous.”
The audience applauds, offering supportive cheer. Christoff takes a deep breath and dives into the black and white keys, head bobbing, torso swaying and fingers flying through a haunting, visceral soundscape.
“Music is based in the heart, it’s a spiritual activity. I view it as a meditative space where I can communicate all the stuff that I see and everything that I’m going through,” said Christoff at the European Deli on The Main, the same spot where he organized his first action over a decade ago — a demonstration against police brutality.
A charismatic radical, Christoff can often be found with megaphone in hand, rousing an unruly crowd in English et en français. Over the past year he has labored on a more intimate endeavour, his first studio album.
THE BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT & SANCTIONS (BDS) MOVEMENT IN CANADA
In the Dheisheh refugee camp in Palestine a young organizer poses a question to a group of teenagers, “Why don’t you boycott Israeli products?”
“Why do I need to boycott Israeli products?” they reply. “They’re better than Palestinian products and all the Arab countries are buying them.”
Areej Ja’fari, the organizer, sees this mentality as an example of internalized colonialism.
She believes it is what makes it possible for refugees to willingly buy products from an Israeli-owned factory sitting on occupied land that once belonged to their family and effectively prevents them from returning to this land.
“Just bringing water to your house is a struggle in Palestine, so you can imagine the struggle not to buy water from an Israeli source, because most Palestinians buy water from Israel,” says Ja’fari.