When imagining a woman in red, a vision of a sultry figure in a sequined gown that cradles every curvature of the female anatomy may be your first thought (read “Jessica Rabbit”). But when envisioning Women in REDzine, the multicultural women’s art and literature magazine of the Campus Women’s Center, think of a powerful sisterhood led by Swati Bhargava.

Bhargava, the publications coordinator for the CWC and the executive coordinator for the Women in REDzine, starts every Thursday meeting with her staff by saying, “Hey family, let’s start with check-ins.” This simple address of “family” instantly brings warmth to the eclectically crowded CWC.

Her staff gathers around the mismatched grey and corduroy brown couches that lovingly hug whoever falls onto their cushions, and proceed to detail their stresses and triumphs of the week.

But you don’t have to be a regular to be a part of this family, and you don’t have to be a woman. Anyone who breezes through the CWC door on Thursday evenings is welcome and instantly enveloped into their world of beautifully liberating expression.

Chanel Matsunami Govreau started WIRZ three years ago in an effort to give the women of UW and the Madison community a tangible venue for multicultural representation. The magazine, published once a semester, welcomes art and literary submissions from anyone in the campus and city communities.

In an interview with the Badger Herald, Govreau, who is currently studying independently in New York, said as a freshman art student and woman of color, she felt distanced from her classmates and wanted to launch a platform that embraced her non-academic artistic interests while also amplifying the voices of marginalized groups on campus.

“I was interested in pursuing a synthesis of visual arts, writing, performance, activism and foreign language,” Govreau said. “I wanted to create a community publication that embraced all these interests.”

For Bhargava, an international studies-political economy and policy junior and Govreau’s successor, WIRZ is an essential platform for multicultural literary freedom.

“It really gets back to the power of print and people’s interpretation of expression,” Bhargava said. “As writers and artists, a lot of times you are restricted unto your two-dimensional parameters, and sometimes it’s not given a context, and sometimes it’s not given a community.”

Past editions are filled with vibrant artwork, poems, essays, interviews, photographs and the empowering manifesta at the beginning of each issue identifying Women in RED as “rebel daughters of the artistic revolution.”

“When I think back to when I was writing the WIRZ manifesta, I imagine a knife in my mouth,” Govreau said. “I wanted to write something sharp, slick and dangerous ? a true reflection of how powerful this collective art movement could become.”

But something that has hindered the power of WIRZ and the CWC is the recent funding struggle. With the absence of $7,312, Bhargava and others in the Center have felt the fiscal stress.

“To be perfectly honest, it has been frustrating,” Bhargava said. “In my personal experience, the time and emotional constraints of [the funding loss] have gotten in the way with how much I want to do with the zine… the implications of losing the funding are pretty insulting.”

Govreau said she was devastated when she heard about the funding struggle, but remains optimistic about the determination of the staff.

“I take it very personally,” Govreau said. “In fact, I believe that every woman on campus should take this issue personally. It’s our women’s center… lack of funding can’t kill a community or the spirit that drives us.”

And so it seems red isn’t simply a seductive color for the WIRZ staff. It’s an expression of their rebellion in the artistic revolution and the scarlet spirit of those who submit.

“It’s easy to say Women In RED has a voice,” Bhargava said. “But it’s not our voice, it’s not the staff’s, it’s not the interns,’ it’s not mine. It’s whoever submits, and it’s whoever picks it up.”

You can pick up your copy of the spring 2010 Women in REDzine beginning April 30 at the release party in the Red Gym Gallery. The magazine is free to all students and faculty.