I have some early reports from the event called "An Evening With Tori Amos: Women and Music", which took place on Thursday, February 24, 2005 at the 92nd St Y in New York, NY at 8:00PM. Tori was there for about 90 minutes to chat and have a Q&A with Ann Powers and the audience. Click to read some accounts from people who were there. If you were there and have more to add, please email me!

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Accounts from people at the event

From david kobayashi:

i just got back from the tori/ann powers chat at the 92nd st. y. pretty neat stuff. ann came out first and introduced tori. she described her music as both "truly popular" and "truly art."

they chatted for just over an hour, and they touched on a lot of stuff (mostly from the book). some of the topics covered included:

- how tori's art became holistic. tori spoke about respect for the songs, and how she was a "container for these beings." she also added that a lack of preparation can lead to a blown fuse.
- tori's awareness of the time and place of her music. here, tori spoke about a show in dallas around the time of the dixie chicks controversy, and how she chose to do landslide, etc. again, stuff right out of the book.
- tori's composition method, and a discussion of song canvasses.
- the connection with tori's music to visual art/kinship with visual artists.
- discussion about the two marys, which lead to a conversation about tori and her mother reading the gospel of mary magdalene, the strong effect on her mother, and their curiosity as to why it isn't "front page news."

the pace was pretty fast, so there's plenty missing. quite a few laughs throughout, also tori took some pre-written audience questions. and that was basically it. crowd was very receptive (rev. and mrs. amos' arrival into theater drew a huge pop), and it was pretty successful.

From Lisa Helton:

Well the evening with Tori Amos was amazing. It lasted from 8 until 9:30. Tori seemed kinda shy and a little intimidated. She remarked that she was worried she wouldn't sound smart around Ann Powers. On several questions, she asked Ann to put them in "Tori-Speak."

Tori compared herself to chocolate cake. She was saying that chocolate cake is like this thing, and you think of it as being one solid object, but really it is a bunch of ingredients put together, not one thing at all.

Tori talked a lot about her process, like how she prepares for concerts, her writing process. I think it's pretty similar to the contents of her book. She did some imitations of her daughter, who has an English accent, so it was really cute. Tori's parents were there, and when they walked into the concert hall, people applauded.

Tori was very interactive with the audience. Before the show started, you could submit a question to Tori on a card that she answered at the end of the evening. Whenever an audience member's question was asked, they were told to stand up when their name was read. One audience member sneezed and Tori stopped to say bless you. Another audience member's cell phone rang, and Tori told him to change his tune.

Tori looked great. She had a black shirt on, silver knee-length skirt, very full. Black tights, big silver platform shoes and a big green necklace. It was just so great to see her sense of humor shine!! She's a very witty, funny lady. She talked about how much she loves shoes, and Ann Powers said yeah, shoes are very spiritual. Tori retorted, yeah, it's their sole. It was SO funny.

On a sad note, many seats were empty throughout the entire show. I was in the very back of the balcony, where those seats that were sold in February were, and the seats in front of me, to my left, and behind me were EMPTY!!!! Even some of the seats two rows in front of me were empty. I could not believe it, considering how hard it was to get those seats in February and how many people would have loved to be there. It wasn't only those seats that were empty either. There were seats in the very front row that weren't filled.

All in all, it was a great evening. I hope this brings you a little closer to it.

From Corby:

I thought I'd pass along some thoughts of the evening. Kaffman hall is a great little venue appears to seat maybe 1500 (maybe less). Tori wore a grey skirt, and strappie sandles and black top (I'm blanking on that for the moment), they were seated on two chairs sorta angled oprah style. Ann and Tori spoke for an hour about various sections of the book and in part about the emotional impact of writting a book/album at the same time. It was a fascinating conversation that delved into subjects concerning family history,feminism, religion, music and the creative process and way too much stuff to paraphrase in the slightest. Tori answered in true Tori fashion and to say the least it was a fascinating conversation. She also took some questions the varous members of the audience wrote down on a card before the show.

From PriMaDoNnAChArmZ:

So I was at the Conversation with Tori and Ann and both had very interesting and intelligent things to say but of course Tori did most of the talking and alot of talking too--she really delved into the questions and conversation, she wasn't being evasive at all. She even would take a moment or two to gather her thoughts b/c she had so much to explain and she had to do it right she felt. Simply put Tori was amazing! Very intelligent and articulate as always with her usual sprinkle of humor. Questions ranged from her writing experiences, what she does to prepare for all the intricacies of the show and just how detailed she is in her productions of her shows, her lineage with her family and how she didn't realize at 1st just what kind of task she was going to have to take on considering this was to stay in "the record books", censorship, and of course littleTash, the artist for her artwork on Piece by Piece and his relationship to the Late Kevyn Aucoin. Tori talked about surviving the music business considering she is a real musician. She explained the albums theme and its relation to The Garden, and of course the Magdalene. She discussed how she is able to apply any of her work to the present moment and location she is in. Also, about ppl's belief system and how she is respectful of anyones beliefs so long as they don't impose them on her or anyone else fo that matter--she did go on to say tho "I don't think that I could sleep with a man whose beliefs I didn't agree with--well at least not now anyway" and the audience went wild!! we all laughed so hard! Tori got a little emotional at one point and almost started to cry when she spoke about how she felt that God's mother, Sophia, had to suffer the loss of her Son, but not in the physical sense but worse she lost him because of the race for power and this moment was really deep and emotional and it was in relation to once again women being the blame for the sin in the world, and how it became about a mans power trip. Tori was unbelievably striking and so on point She was dressed soooo beautifully, and she was just perfection.

From Steve:

I was reading the articles submitted on the show at Kaufmann Hall last night, and especially the one about the empty seats.

I was responsible for two of them last night, and decided not to take the train from PA due to the prediction ofa badsnow storm (which now I'm thinking wasn't that bad). I'm sure that affected people other than myself. Also, since you had to pick them up in person at the box office (and show your credit card), there was no way to pass them on to other fans that could attend (at least that I knew of).

Maybe some also didn't show due to the fact that Tori wasn't performing, as originally labeled back in the summer. Didn't make a difference to me.

From Charlene M.:

I flew in from San Francisco for the show. And though it snowed and we had seats near the back, it was amazing. Both women were so well spoken I thought. Funny too. I laughed so hard sometimes... I loved that they did touch on many aspects of the book. I would have loved to heard more from Tori about the spirituality aspect of hers with regard to her rituals. I loved the chocolate cake reference. That there are many ingredients that go into making up what we know as chocolate cake~just like what makes up "Tori Amos". I loved that they did talk about religion quite a bit and coming from a background of not ever going to church or reading the bible, I was intrigued by Tori's views. Tori at one point talked about how the religious right is related to her. "I am related to those people" she said. Too cute. Thanks Ann and Tori for making this cross country journey well worth it. See you out west.