Q & A with Estelle Carol

Co-Founder of Voices Exchange

by Tawni Swanson

Are you originally from Chicago?
I came to Chicago from the suburbs of New York City in 1966 to attend the University of Chicago as an undergraduate.

What do you like most about the Windy City?
People are generally friendlier than in New York City. It's more affordable to live in Chicagoland than in NYC.

What is your education and career history?
I have a BA from the University of Chicago. I'm a graphic designer and illustrator. I've had a small studio in Oak Park since 1991. Before that I was a magazine art director and a graphic designer at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
My studio also does web site development. Most of my clients are nonprofit groups, labor unions, schools/universities, educational publishers and small businesses. I market my business through three web sites:
http://www.estellegraphics.com
http://www.carol-simpson.com
http://www.WebTraxStudio.com

Have you worked for non-profits other than Voices Exchange?
I am also the volunteer coordinator for the Chicago Women's Liberation Union Herstory Project. This is an online archive of the history of the women's liberation movement in Chicago. The site is widely used by professors and students in women's studies all over the world.
I'm on the steering committee of the Oak Park Coalition for Truth and Justice, which is one of the three founding organizations of Voices Exchange.
I was the founder of the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective in 1969. This was a workgroup of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union. I was a paid coordinator for the Women's Graphics Collective for a couple of years. We did feminist posters for the national women's liberation movement. Chicago Women's Graphics Collective ended in 1983. The Herstory Project site displays the posters at http://www.cwluherstory.org/CWLUGallery/graphcoll.html
and also sells reprints of the posters as a fundraising project.

What kind of non-profit do you think Chicago would most benfit from?
I really don't know. Perhaps a free or very affordable training school for activists and organizers.

How did you get started with Voices Exchange?
It's my idea. I convinced the three founding organizations to collaborate on it.

In a typical week, what are some of the tasks you accomplish for the organization?
Some weeks I do no work for Voices Exchange. Usually I do the layouts and some content writing for their leaflets and printed materials. About twice a month I attend steering committee meetings and help plan strategy. I talk to lots of people in the course of my work and try to get support, and speakers for Voices Exchange.

What kinds of things would you like to see in the future of Voices Exchange?

• Funding to pay a full-time coordinator with benefits.
• Funding to do a broad marketing of Voices Exchange resources all over Chicagoland.
• Funding to expand the film collection.
• Large and growing lists of speakers and performers.
• Funding to offer training to people who want to improve their speaking skills

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