Jane Fonda counters Trump's UFC Freedom 250 with star-studded First Amendment celebration
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: As punches fly inside Donald Trump's UFC Freedom 250 spectacle at the White House, his longtime nemesis Jane Fonda will stage a different kind of fight, bringing together artists and activists performing in the name of free speech.
The 88-year-old ‘Barbarella’ star will co-host ‘Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment’ on Sunday, June 14, at The Town Hall in New York City.
The event is presented by the Committee for the First Amendment, an advocacy group that Fonda revived, in collaboration with Indivisible and No Kings.
Jane Fonda says the event will be ‘great’
The concert is scheduled to begin at 7:30 pm ET, directly competing with Trump's UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn, a centerpiece of the nation's 250th anniversary celebrations that also falls on the president's birthday.
The 90-minute event will feature performances and appearances from Rufus Wainwright, Bette Midler, Patti Smith, Sasha Allen, Joy Reid, and Fonda, with Julia Roberts, Lily Gladstone, Wilson Cruz, and Peppermint.
It will be streamed online, and watch parties are planned across the country. Organizers stated that proceeds will support the Committee for the First Amendment.
“In a moment when our fundamental freedoms are under threat, music has always led the way,” reads the event description. “From the civil rights movement to today, artists have been at the forefront of the fight for justice and free expression.”
The Hollywood icon told host Jon Stewart that the event will be “great,” noting that “Not only is it going on in the theater, but we have thousands–I think over 5,000 registered viewing parties around the country in red states and purple states and blue states.”
“Music has always been part of movements,” she continued, “Of resistance movements, the civil rights movement.”
Fonda says she wants to be ‘in front’ against Trump
The two-time Academy Award-winner has been a staunch Trump rival, advocating for democracy and social issues for five decades.
“This is our documentary moment,” Fonda told Reuters in an interview. “History is going to write about this, and I don’t want to be on the side of people who said, ‘Oh my God, things are so bad, what am I going to do?’ No. I want to be out in the front."
Fonda previously joined journalists, musicians, and writers outside Washington’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday in urging US citizens to “break your silence” and “stand tall against authoritarianism”.
About 100 guests gathered at a rally organized by Fonda's Committee for the First Amendment, where speakers and performers criticized book bans, political censorship, and what they described as growing threats to free speech under President Donald Trump.
“This beloved citadel of the arts has become a symbol of what is happening. The centre has been effectively silenced after artists refused to bow to ideological demands and the racist erasure of history,” Fonda observed at that time.
“As a cover, Trump is shutting it down for at least two years, supposedly to make repairs, and he even suggested it may be necessary to take it down to the studs. What’s he gonna do? Build another ballroom where he can dance and, like Nero, fiddle while his country burns?” she continued.
