2022 Tulane Alumni
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
Holiday gift giving can be overwhelming. Thankfully, we have you covered with our Tulane Alumni Gift Guide! Get in the Green Wave spirit and support some of the Tulane alumni-affiliated businesses below. From craft olive oil to fine jewelry to body scrubs and apparel, there is something for everyone on your list.
Did we miss anyone? We are always hoping to profile outstanding alumni. If you know of an alumni retailer that we have not featured here, please let us know at alumni@tulane.edu or in our social channels for consideration for a future profile or inclusion in next year’s gift guide.
From Magazine Street to the World
Running from uptown to downtown New Orleans, Magazine Street is as iconic as the Crescent City itself. Tulane alumni are making their mark on this historic thoroughfare.
HAZELNUT
Fine gift and home furnishings shop Hazelnut is co-owned by actor Bryan Batt (A&S ’85) and writer Katy Danos (A&S ’85), along with Batt’s partner Tom Cianfichi. Hazelnut is the perfect place to purchase something with some flair. According to the store’s website, Batt divides his time between the Garden District and the Upper East Side: “This blend of the ‘Big Apple’ and the ‘Big Easy’ has created a cross-pollination of design styles that he brings to Hazelnut, creating its unique sensibility of chic, mixed with old world charm.”
MIGNON FAGET
The city of New Orleans is the primary inspiration for the collections at Mignon Faget, named after its owner, who graduated from Newcomb College in 1955. Each exquisite and distinctive piece is designed on historic Magazine Street, according to the website: “Drawing from her fine arts training, Mignon Faget’s designs are anchored in natural and architectural concepts, which come to life in timeless sculptural forms.” Check out the double old-fashioned glasses from her Collegiate Collection, which feature a Tulane-inspired design.
STONEY CLOVER LANE
This colorful and customizable line of bags and accessories was founded in 2009 and grew in dorm rooms at Tulane. Stoney Clover Lane was founded by sisters Kendall Glazer (SLA ’13) and Libby Glazer (SLA ’15) and has been featured in numerous fashion magazines and worn by top celebrities. After opening its first brick-and-mortar store in Palm Beach in 2018, the company opened a total of six stores, including the New Orleans store on Magazine that opened in 2021.
Tulane Entrepreneurs Make Their Mark
54 THRONES
Christina Tegbe (B ’07) left a career in corporate consulting in 2015 to launch 54 Thrones, an African beauty brand. The line, which includes body butter, body oil and cleansing bars, is named after Africa’s 54 countries. Christina travels to Africa to source key ingredients and meet with the artisans who handcraft the rich ingredients that make up the brand. 54 Thrones is carried by major retailers and in 2020, Oprah Winfrey chose it for her annual list of “Favorite Things.” In 2021, the company got another boost when Tegbe competed on “Shark Tank” and attracted two investors.
GRAZA
Interested in fresh, affordable extra-virgin olive oil that can be used every day? Allen Dushi (B ’09) is co-founder of Graza, a popular EVOO startup that launched earlier this year. Beloved by top chefs and top home chefs alike, Graza’s single-varietal oil is sourced from a farm in southern Spain and comes in a distinctive opaque green plastic squeeze bottle. You can purchase directly through the website or can pick up a bottle at select Whole Foods, Fresh Markets, and specialty shops across the United States.
ORNAMENTS & SILICONE KOOZIES
Nicole Harvey (SLA ’12) has a custom-event décor business, called Edie Rose. Harvey mainly sells items for weddings and baby showers, but around the holidays, she adds gift items and ornaments. A discount code for 10 percent off on Edie Rose at https://www.etsy.com/shop/EdieRoseDesign is Tulane10. Harvey also has a company called Mason-re. The company makes silicone koozies for mason jars, because the founders believe that “the key to sustainability is using less items for more things.” Their koozies allow you to drink hot or cold beverages from your mason jar, protect the jar from breakage, are dishwasher- and microwave-safe and contain no plastic. A discount for 20 percent off at https://www.mason-re.com/ is Tulane20.
BIG MAMA’S CALAMONDIN VINAIGRETTE
For decades, Big Mama has made a vinaigrette dressing for friends & family with fresh ingredients grown in her Miami, Florida backyard garden. After many of those taste testers said the salad dressing was good enough to sell, Tulane alum Ethan Shapiro (UC ’99) launched the company in 2021. Big Mama’s Calamondin Vinaigrette has now sold over 1,400 bottles and is in several grocery stores in South Florida. The dressing has no preservatives, artificial flavors, cholesterol, gluten, dairy or added sugar. “We exclusively test our dressing on Big Mama’s grandchildren, so you know it’s good!” For the holidays, Big Mama’s is offering free shipping on every order of two bottles or more.
TULANE GIFTS
GRADUATE POSTERS
Since 2016, the Tulane Alumni Association has sent graduates off with a specially commissioned art poster designed by a local New Orleans artist. The posters are given to graduating students, so they always have a reminder of Tulane and New Orleans to take with them wherever they go. Now, alumni can purchase these posters while supplies last.
FINE GIFTS AT M. LAHART & CO.
Interested in a pair of cufflinks, glassware or even a TAG Heuer watch? M. LaHart & Co. sells all this and more, and all showcasing the Tulane logo. Personal engraving is available.
TULANE UNIVERSITY OFFICIAL BOOKSTORE
You can sip your coffee from a Tulane mug, fly a Green Wave banner at your house or play table tennis with balls marked with the Tulane logo. The Tulane University Bookstore has an apparel and spirit shop that is sure to satisfy even the biggest Tulane fan.
WAVE WAREHOUSE
Tulane University Athletics is offering an opportunity for fans to purchase official Green Wave gear. Inside the Wave Warehouse, fans will find some of the most highly coveted Tulane Athletics merchandise, such as exclusive, game-worn Tulane football jerseys and helmets available for purchase in limited quantities. View the entire inventory online.
READER'S CORNER
Tulane alumni and faculty books:
NBC Capitol Hill correspondent Ali Vitali (SLA ’12) covered the 2020 campaign trail every step of the way as an MSNBC “Road Warrior.” She used the insights she gained from that experience to write Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House . . . Yet. The incisive book investigates “the gendered double standards placed on women presidential candidates of that cycle and those who came before, and what it will take for a woman to finally break the glass ceiling and win the White House.”
On November 1, N. (Nora) K. Jemisin (NC ’94) released The World We Make, the second book in her Great Cities series. Jemisin is a New York Times-bestselling author of speculative fiction short stories and novels. In 2016, she became the first African American writer to win the Best Novel Hugo Award, for The Fifth Season. In 2018, she was the first author to win three Hugos in a row, for her Broken Earth trilogy. She has also won a Nebula Award, two Locus Awards, and is the recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” fellowship.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright (A&S ’69) wrote The Plague Year, a nonfiction account of COVID-19, which was described by The New York Times Book Review as “a book of panoramic breadth … managing to surprise us about even those episodes we … thought we knew well … [With] lively exchanges about spike proteins and nonpharmaceutical interventions and disease waves, Wright’s storytelling dexterity makes all this come alive.”
Peter M. Wolf (G *63) wrote a biography about his great-great grandfather: The Sugar King: Leon Godchaux. Godchaux came to New Orleans a “penniless, illiterate, Jewish 13-year-old from France who crossed the Atlantic alone.” He was unable to read or to write his entire life, and he refused to enter the sugar business until the end of slavery, but by the “end of his intrigue-filled life Leon Godchaux is known as the Sugar King of Louisiana; the owner of 14 plantations, the largest sugar producer in the region and the top taxpayer in the state.”
Tulane Assistant Professor of English and critically acclaimed author Ladee Hubbard has penned two novels, The Talented Ribkins and most recently, The Rib King, which was called “a fascinating story about the intersection of ambition, race, and revenge” by the Washington Post. Her collection of short stories, The Last Suspicious Holdout, was published in March 2022 to high praise.
Amy Gajda is the Class of 1937 Professor of Law at Tulane Law School and the author of Seek and Hide: The Tangled History of the Right to Privacy. The book was called “wry and fascinating” by The New York Times. The Atlantic said “Gadja’s chronicle reveals an enduring tension between principles of free speech and respect for individuals’ private lives. …just the sort of road map we could use right now.”