Springfield Women Gather to Watch Jane Fonda Event as Trump Hosts Cage Fights
Jane Fonda’s ‘Rise Up, Sing Out’ free speech concert drew more than 1 million viewers nationwide, including 70 people at a Springfield, Ohio watch party where women outnumbered men 10-to-1.
SPRINGFIELD, OHIO — While President Donald Trump hosted cage matches on the White House lawn to celebrate his 80th birthday and the nation’s 250th anniversary, women in Springfield gathered Sunday night to watch a livestreamed free speech event featuring actor and activist Jane Fonda.
Tina Koumoutsos was inside a downtown Springfield events space organizing postcards about voting rights for the women’s issues group she leads for the county Democratic Party when she spotted a familiar face on the big screen.
“Oh, that’s Jane Fonda!” Koumoutsos said as the actor launched into “Rise Up, Sing Out,” a concert event honoring free speech that was livestreamed as counter-programming to Trump’s birthday cage matches.
Hundreds of Watch Parties Held Across All 50 States
The Springfield gathering was one of hundreds of watch parties held across all 50 states, according to the Ohio Capital Journal, which originally reported the story through The 19th News. More than 1 million people tuned into the livestream, according to a “Rise Up, Sing Out” spokesperson, either individually or as part of a group.
Roughly 70 people gathered at the Springfield viewing party, where women outnumbered men by 10-to-1. When Fonda declared, “They come for one of us, by God, they come for all of us!” Koumoutsos joined in the wave of cheers and applause that swept the room.
Many of the watch parties nationwide were coordinated by leaders of local Indivisible chapters and organizers of No Kings protests, two intertwined movements in which women have been playing significant roles in opposing the president.
Event Hosted at Venue Founded by Suffragists
“Rise Up, Sing Out” was hosted by Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment at New York City’s Town Hall, a venue founded by suffragists who fought to pass the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which established women’s right to vote.
Fonda relaunched the Committee for the First Amendment in October as a vehicle for Hollywood to oppose Trump administration efforts to restrict free speech. The choice of Town Hall as a venue carried symbolic weight for attendees focused on voting rights and women’s political participation.
Springfield Attendees Focused on Voting Rights
The Springfield watch party took place at a downtown events space where attendees were simultaneously working on postcards related to voting rights — the same cause that brought Koumoutsos and her group together before the livestream began.
The dual nature of the evening, part civic organizing and part collective viewing, reflected the way local activists have been combining grassroots work with broader national events, according to The 19th News, which covered watch parties in multiple states.
