BREAKING: ‘Wonder Woman’ Lynda Carter Steps Into Kennedy Center Fight — Then Delivers a Defiant Message!

Thousands of protesters descended on Washington’s Kennedy Center Friday evening, linking hands outside the shuttered performing arts complex as fears mounted over the future of one of America’s most famous cultural institutions.

And then Wonder Woman took the microphone.

Lynda Carter, the 75-year-old actress who became a television icon playing Wonder Woman in the 1970s, joined the demonstration outside the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and delivered an impassioned defense of the arts.

“I hear your hearts, and you hear mine,” Carter told the crowd.

“Music and the arts is how we actually survive. It is how we learn.”

The gathering, organized by Hands Off the Arts, drew thousands of people into Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood.

Demonstrators streamed toward the Kennedy Center carrying signs and eventually linked hands to create a human chain along accessible portions of the building.

Organizers had hoped to surround the entire complex, but newly installed fencing prevented protesters from completing a full loop.

Carter’s appearance gave the demonstration one of its most recognizable voices.

Best known for playing Diana Prince and Wonder Woman in the television series that began airing half a century ago, Carter has remained closely associated with the character and has long supported the arts.

Standing before the crowd Friday, she connected that support directly to the confrontation surrounding the Kennedy Center.

“You cannot lock us up,” Carter said.

“We will not be quiet. We will sing in the streets. We will sing at the top of our lungs.”

Carter also drew attention to the large gold lock she was wearing around her neck.

It wasn’t simply jewelry.

Carter told the crowd the piece had been made by an artist and said she deliberately chose to wear it as a symbol.

“This is a symbol for us,” she said. “Because we will not be locked up. We will wear the lock.”

The demonstration came at the end of an extraordinary week for the Kennedy Center.

A federal judge had again blocked efforts to restore Trump’s name to the institution, ruling that Congress — not the Kennedy Center board — has the authority to rename the presidential memorial.

The Kennedy Center’s Trump-aligned board subsequently voted to close the main building for renovations.

Fencing then appeared around portions of the complex.

Trump further intensified uncertainty surrounding the building when he warned that without adequate recognition for his administration’s efforts, the center could ultimately close and be “ripped down.”

The comments, combined with images of Trump examining a placard apparently related to possible demolition plans, prompted additional concern among Kennedy Center supporters.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered Kennedy Center officials to provide at least 30 days’ notice before making major physical changes to the building, including demolition.

Trump returned to the subject Friday.

Speaking from the Oval Office, he called the Kennedy Center “a dump” and again argued that his administration deserved recognition for helping secure money for repairs.

Asked directly whether he intended to demolish the building, Trump did not provide a definitive answer.

Outside the Kennedy Center that evening, however, protesters were making their own position unmistakable.

The demonstration had originally been planned well before the tumultuous events of the past week, but the sudden closure and uncertainty surrounding the building dramatically changed the circumstances surrounding the gathering.

Organizers had anticipated roughly 1,000 attendees.

By the end of the evening, Hands Off the Arts estimated that several thousand had participated. The Associated Press likewise reported that the crowd numbered in the thousands.

Many protesters carried signs, while others wore costumes. At one point, demonstrators joined hands to form the human chain that gave the event its name.

Carter’s appearance became one of the evening’s most recognizable moments.

For an actress whose most famous character spent decades symbolizing strength and resistance, her message Friday night was fittingly straightforward.

“No one can silence us,” Carter told the crowd.

“Not ever, ever, ever.”