At 14 years old, Tiara began her work in environmental justice at the Eco-Ambassador Program. Upon learning about food and sustainable land use, Tiara thought about the food desert in her own community of Calumet City, Illinois, where thriving businesses are constantly replaced with liquor stores. Pete’s, Aldi, and Food4Less are currently the only major fresh food marts on the far edges of Calumet City.
Photograph of local liquor store in Calumet. Photo provided by Tiara Bullock.
But what is a food desert? A food desert is any place where access to fresh food is scarce or inaccessible within reasonable proximity to one's home. It is estimated that roughly 35% of Chicagoans alone live in classified food deserts.
Tiara states, “In my own community, I see children learning how to buy liquor or cigarettes before knowing how to pick out a ripe tomato and these liquor stores do not care. I grew up with a good family owned restaurant, ‘Aunt Sally’s,’ that brought members of the community together. Now it is called ‘Mika’s Liquors,’ which is the fourth liquor store that can be found within four blocks of my house. My community suffers from it. It looks run-down and the few businesses that do come stay for a month if we’re lucky. It 's sad.”
As a result of her experience, Tiara wrote a children’s story book called In a Land of Liquor, My Hometown. The story combines lively cartoon art with real problems and solutions to the socio-economic crisis for families. To the author, the most important take-away from the book is for young people to learn how to identify food deserts and local food options in their community. The e-book is the first of three in the digital environmental children's book series, Eco Needs. Other parts of the series include Back to My Roots, and An Ocean for Me, Covid-19.
Photograph of the front cover of Tiara’s book, “In the Land of Liquor, My Hometown.”
Tiara Bullock is not a journalist. She says, “I do not directly identify as just a journalist. I do not only write articles following consistent formats, and I do not believe in the tail of an article to always be the end.” She is a creative journalist. Creative journalism is enhancing a story to provoke an event or desired reaction. Enhancing is one word for it as Tiara is combining stories with the technology of modern journalism and producing journalistic content via video, theatrical, and artistic productions. However, for many years, Tiara believed she had to choose between her creativity and more structured writing.
Majoring in Broadcast Media, the world of television and film caused her to doubt the viability of her journalist goals. It was not until 2022 when she realized she depended on her interest in natural environments to inspire and aid in her script writing, video production, and brainstorming. “I was working on a mystery script when I couldn’t help putting in the cornfields and agriculture of Ohio. It made me mindful that I can be an environmental advocate through journalism, but creatively.”
She now spends her time developing material to further prove the professionalism in creative journalism as well as the impact it can make. Tiara states, “The purpose of journalism is to get information to the public so that they may make their own decisions about society. This is what I do in everything. My mission now is to connect the two to produce content available to everyone in 2023.” Tiara encourages everyone with a passion for journalism to consider the idea of pursuing it creatively.