About
The idea of "Poi Art" firstly came out in 2005. Following firstly seeing poi, Ersin Yılmaz had faced a series of problems with learning it because of the high costly toys and trainings, of the lack of training videos and workshops in Turkish, and of the rare acquaintance of poi loving people with each other. Such problems have pushed him to take some steps, at least at personal level. And from 2007 until 2009 summer, he has organized various workshops in youth festivals, offered free poi trainings and produced dozens of hand-made poi to give as a gift to people to make them happy.
Ersin met other poi addicts in various festivals, such as Sun.Day.Sky, Rock’n Coke and Sokakta Şenlik. And he has accelerated his nonprofit and collaborative poi activities by 2009 summer because he and his new poi addicted friends came together by chance in 2009 Sokakta Şenlik and they became a natural group. Since then, the group has called itself Poi Art. Members of the group have begun to meet more often and to spin their poi since then. These meetings, known as "Poi Meeting" now, are made regularly and are open to anyone to join. The "Poi Art" group organized more than 20 meetings in 2009 summer in many places, from Caddebostan to Kadıköy, from Tophane to Cemil Topuzlu Park, from the Civil Voices Festival in Küçük Çiftlik Park to the Yaşayan Kütüphane (Human Library) event in !f Istanbul. These meeting turn into workshops and training events where each participant can learn poi and develop his/her poi skills by having fun and collaborating with others. Participants of the meetings can also offer guidance to each other about how to design and produce their own poi and where the best place is to order the best poi. Strong friendships are another plus of such collaborative and cooperative meetings.
Being under the sway of these meetings, members of the "Poi Art" create new ideas around a series of keywords, including sharing, fun, training, intimacy, joy and friendship, to become the basis of their future projects.
The group aims to play a role in developing and spreading poi art by meeting face-to-face with anyone who is interested in poi performance art and by becoming a common denominator for them. In this manner, it aims to organize free public poi performance events, poi workshops and poi trainings.
Ersin met other poi addicts in various festivals, such as Sun.Day.Sky, Rock’n Coke and Sokakta Şenlik. And he has accelerated his nonprofit and collaborative poi activities by 2009 summer because he and his new poi addicted friends came together by chance in 2009 Sokakta Şenlik and they became a natural group. Since then, the group has called itself Poi Art. Members of the group have begun to meet more often and to spin their poi since then. These meetings, known as "Poi Meeting" now, are made regularly and are open to anyone to join. The "Poi Art" group organized more than 20 meetings in 2009 summer in many places, from Caddebostan to Kadıköy, from Tophane to Cemil Topuzlu Park, from the Civil Voices Festival in Küçük Çiftlik Park to the Yaşayan Kütüphane (Human Library) event in !f Istanbul. These meeting turn into workshops and training events where each participant can learn poi and develop his/her poi skills by having fun and collaborating with others. Participants of the meetings can also offer guidance to each other about how to design and produce their own poi and where the best place is to order the best poi. Strong friendships are another plus of such collaborative and cooperative meetings.
Being under the sway of these meetings, members of the "Poi Art" create new ideas around a series of keywords, including sharing, fun, training, intimacy, joy and friendship, to become the basis of their future projects.
The group aims to play a role in developing and spreading poi art by meeting face-to-face with anyone who is interested in poi performance art and by becoming a common denominator for them. In this manner, it aims to organize free public poi performance events, poi workshops and poi trainings.
